ARCHIVED - Four million counterfeit face masks seized at Madrid hotel

Spanish National Police officers discovered the masks, along with heavy duty printers equipped to print out CE logos and stamps, during checks on nightlife venues in Parla and Leganés

A hotel manager of Asian origins has been arrested for suspected counterfeiting and another 28 people reported for administrative offences after police officers carrying out checks on nightlife venues in the Madrid towns of Parla and Leganés found a set-up to print official CE logos and quality stamps on non-approved masks, re-package them and sell them on as if they were KN95 and FFP2 certified.

The scam was revealed when National Police officers were carrying out routine checks at a hotel in Leganés, where they discovered an entire storey of the building and a large storeroom filled with around 4 million masks, some already packed in boxes ready for distribution and others out of their packaging and stored in unhygienic and unsafe conditions. A karaoke room was found to contain heavy duty printing material, believed to be used to stamp the non-approved masks with the “CE” logo and sanitary product certification anagrams and create new packages for distribution.