In a joint operation of the Spanish Civil Guard and Europol, 18 people were arrested by a criminal group operating an illegal cigarette factory in the Spanish city of Granada, TASS reported.

The authorities of Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine have been cooperating to carry out the operation, according to a release from Wednesday by the European Police Service.

Criminals have invested three million euros in the factory and even created their own trademark. Workers, mostly citizens of Bulgaria and Ukraine, lived in nearby rental flats and worked 12 hours a day in extremely poor working conditions. The capacity of the factory was two million single cigarettes a day.

According to Europol's announcement, after the yesterday's operation, the factory was closed, and during the searches carried out in eight warehouses in the Granada and Málaga area were seized 10 tons of tobacco leaves, 4 tons of tobacco, 4.5 million cigarettes, equipment, filters , paper and adhesives. For the arrested, allegations were made of illegal trade, involvement in a criminal group, money laundering and human rights violations.