Scrap-yard network forging environmental certificates dismantled, including in Fuerteventura

Investigated Eight Individuals and Three Legal Entities

The Civil Guard has dismantled a network of scrapyards with bases in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote that, in collaboration with a scrapyard in the Community of Madrid, forged environmental certificates to hide the irregular handling of hundreds of heavy‑weight vehicles belonging to a transport company.

In a statement, the Benemérita explained that, as part of Operation “DILANIO,” agents shut down three clandestine scrapyards and opened investigations against eight natural persons and three legal entities for alleged continuous crimes against the environment and document falsification.

It is estimated that more than 10,000 vehicles were irregularly processed over the past four years, generating emissions equivalent to about 1,500 tonnes of CO₂.

The probe began when the SEPRONA unit in Las Palmas detected an unauthorized facility dedicated to illicit waste management on protected rustic land, where 44 heavy‑weight vehicles—both whole and partially dismantled—were found. These vehicles came from legally established scrapyards with which the illegal operation maintained commercial agreements.

The deregistration procedures for these vehicles were formally processed through those legitimate scrapyards, allowing the irregular origin of the operations to be concealed.

As the investigation progressed, Civil Guard officers discovered that a transport company had delivered more than 240 large vehicles to a scrapyard in Madrid with the intention of deregistering them and carrying out subsequent environmental treatment.

Resold as Scrap

Instead, that establishment resold the vehicles as scrap, obtaining significant economic gains and diverting the vehicles to other scrapyards in the province of Las Palmas, where the required environmental certificates were forged to certify proper handling.

As a result of the operation, two clandestine scrapyards were closed and a third was seized; all were located on protected rustic land covering over 40,000 m².

These sites operated under the cover of authorized scrapyards situated in industrial zones, which issued the falsified documentation while portions of the vehicles were transferred without proper decontamination—or only partially treated.

Finally, SEPRONA confirmed that the investigated activities involved the release of fluorinated gases into the atmosphere during vehicle dismantling, with no technical control in place.