The Valencia Civil Guard, which is always working to prevent the theft and illegal trade of farm products, has carried out a total of 250 inspections in stores that sell citrus fruits, greengrocers, and points that purchase fruits for juice within the framework of the Partenon21 operation. The operation was carried out within the context of the orange harvesting season -which lasted from October 2020 and June 2021- and it allowed authorities to solve a total of 44 alleged criminal acts.
Authorities were able to identify a gang of orange pickers who apparently used a land owner’s DATA documents to collect oranges from other farms without authorization. The Civil Guard has reported that the owner was aware of the events that were taking place and even told the gang from which fields bordering his lands they had to steal the product.
Another of the investigations led to the clarification of a continued scam of another seasonal product -persimmon- in the area between Benifaio and Alginet. The scammer earned the farmers’ trust by paying some of them small amounts of money at the beginning of the season for the sale of the product and, once he gained their trust, he would stop paying them, delaying the payments over time.
The Partenon21 operation investigated 29 people between the ages of 20 and 50 for theft, misappropriation, falsification of 91 documents, false reports, and fraud.
The volume of fruit related to these actions amounts to 125,000 kilos of citrus fruits worth 25,000 euro, and 163,000 kilos of persimmons valued at 65,000 euro.
Source: lne.es