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José Rodríguez Cámara
Torremolinos
Tuesday, 6 May 2025, 13:18
So far this year, the Local Police force in Torremolinos has already carried out 60 interventions against illegal street vending, including the seizure of some two tonnes of fake merchandise. These actions, according to the town hall, mainly take place on La Carihuela beach, where there is a constant presence of illegal street vendors on public roads, especially near the municipal border with Benalmádena. The items seized during these operations amount to around 8,000 items, including handbags, T-shirts, and trainers that appear to be from well-known and, in some cases, luxury brands.
The town hall said that, for this type of operation, two additional patrol units are deployed along the coastal area during weekends and public holidays. In addition, plainclothes officers monitor the vehicles used to transport and distribute the goods, with the aim of identifying their storage location. The Local Police emphasise that the sale of counterfeit goods is not only an issue of unfair competition for legitimate businesses, but also constitutes a criminal offence with links to human trafficking and money laundering. This activity results in losses of around six billion euros in Spain, according to a study conducted by Sigma Dos for the Madrid business confederation (CEIM).
It is worth remembering that, on 20 August 2024, Benalmádena town hall reported a major operation against this type of activity, involving the Local Police from the municipality, as well as officers from Torremolinos. The operation led to the arrest of four individuals and the seizure of 2,826 items, most of them clothing, bags and shoes. A total of 56 officers were deployed, 19 of them in plain clothes, on the beach in La Carihuela, located midway between the two municipalities.
A few days before this operation there had been an altercation between Benalmádena’s Local Police officers and street vendors, which resulted in four officers being injured and one person being arrested, in that same stretch of the Costa del Sol - one of the areas with the highest concentration of businesses and tourist activity.
Both individually and through various associations, business owners in the La Carihuela area have expressed their unhappiness at the presence of illegal street vendors selling counterfeit goods on the promenade. Organisations such as the Benalmádema employers' association have even initiated measures to promote alternative employment for those employed in this type of illegal business. In the same way, solutions have been proposed such as fining people who buy these items, which are imitations of the original brands.
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