More than 200,000 cans of soft drinks have been seized in a Los Alcázares warehouse amid fears they may be fake, unsafe or below standard.
In a major operation, the Guardia Civil joined forces with inspectors from Murcia’s regional health department to raid a drinks warehouse, where they uncovered a huge stockpile of fizzy drinks with serious labelling problems.
Officials seized 202,608 cans of non-alcoholic carbonated drinks from a number of popular brands after finding they lacked the required Spanish labelling and proper EU markings.
The man in charge of the warehouse has now been reported for an alleged consumer law offence.
The alarm was first raised earlier this month when officers in Jaén intercepted 48,401 cans of similar drinks in another warehouse. None of them had Spanish labels. When investigators traced the supply route, it led them straight to a wholesale distributor in Los Alcázares.
That sparked a full joint inspection over concerns that the drinks could be counterfeit or poor quality, posing a potential risk to public health.
When officers entered the Murcia warehouse, they found more than 202,000 suspect cans stacked inside.
Every one of the affected products was sealed off on the spot, preventing any further distribution.
Now investigators are working to find out exactly where the drinks came from, how far they were distributed, and whether unsafe products may already have made their way towards consumers.
