The operation

Guardia di Finanza seizes 60 tonnes of counterfeit tobacco and cigarettes

This is the balance of the operation carried out by the Bergamo Group of the Italian Finance Police

by Davide Madeddu

21 February 2026

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

A disused warehouse
Two interventions
12 foreign workers
530 thousand cigarette packets
Other operations

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The shed appeared to be disused. Inside, the financiers of the Bergamo Provincial Command discovered and dismantled "a clandestine cigarette factory active in the province", and seized approximately 60 tonnes of tobacco and cigarettes already packaged in more than half a million packets, with a value of approximately 14 million euro.

A disused shed

This is the balance of the operation carried out by the Bergamo Group of the Italian Finance Police, triggered by the identification in the industrial area of Ciserano, of a shed 'without signs and apparently disused'.

"In fact, the building showed signs incompatible with the state of abandonment, such as movements of vehicles at night and smoke emissions," wrote the Guardia di Finanza in a note. The control of one of the vehicles used also made it possible to identify a second site in the municipality of Treviolo, which was considered to be functional for logistical activities".

Two interventions

So the interventions: in Treviolo, during the control of an articulated lorry being unloaded, the financial officers found about 1,500 kilos of leaf tobacco and numerous parcels containing cigarette filters. "At the same time, in the warehouse in Ciserano, a veritable clandestine factory was discovered," emphasised the Yellow Flames, "equipped with a complete plant capable of managing the entire production cycle, from tobacco drying to packet packaging, with a potential cigarette production capacity of more than one million per day".

12 foreign workers

Inside the factory, the military officers also found '12 foreign workers and rooms set up as dormitories, as well as a kitchen and substantial food stocks'.

According to what the investigators reconstructed, everything was organised to operate with the utmost secrecy: "The walls were lined with sound-absorbing material to muffle the noise of the machinery, while the use of generators," the investigators continue, "served to mask the peaks in electricity consumption that would be detected through the supply of electricity." Around an external video surveillance system and the discovery of two bug detectors to "evade possible checks by the police".

530 thousand packets of cigarettes

Specifically, the operation led to the seizure of 530,000 packets of counterfeit cigarettes 'traceable to mass-market brands (amounting to more than 21 tonnes of finished product)', 38 tonnes of tobacco, millions of filters and wrapping dies, 11 industrial machines and several vehicles used for transport.

"The total value of the products removed from the illegal market and of the entire production line," the military emphasised, "is estimated at between 12 and 14 million euro. At the end of the operation, two people were arrested and the workers charged in state of freedom.

Other operations

This is just the latest of the seizures made by the Italian Armed Forces against cigarette smuggling. In January, the Financial Police of the Padua Provincial Command seized more than 7 tonnes of smuggled cigarettes hidden among the coffee machines inside a tractor-trailer. Together with the cigarettes, the vehicle was also seized. In December, a huge factory producing 4 million cigarettes per day and machinery worth over EUR 2 million was seized in central Italy.