An attempt to smuggle 11 million abroad in Odesa region

At the Palanka-Mayaky-Udobne checkpoint in Odesa region, border guards of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi detachment found undeclared foreign currency worth more than UAH 11.5 million.

According to the press service of the State Border Guard Service, the currency was being carried by a 35-year-old resident of Odesa region.

The man was leaving Ukraine and hid it in the structural cavities of the armrest of a Toyota car. In total, he tried to take out 100 thousand euros and 160 thousand US dollars. Currently, the foreign currency and the vehicle have been seized by Odesa Customs officers pending a court decision.

Earlier, a Ukrainian woman tried to take an ancient image of Christ the Almighty through the Orlivka checkpoint. The icon, which has signs of cultural and historical value, was carefully hidden in the car's luggage compartment. The inscription indicates that it was sold in the Shestopalov and Krotov Trading House, a well-known pre-revolutionary Odesa store.

In May, a large-scale timber smuggling scheme was uncovered in Odesa region: an entrepreneur from Chernihiv region was exporting timber with false documents through the Starokozache-Tudora checkpoint on the border with Moldova.

It turned out that the accused organized a scheme to illegally export timber products abroad, despite the current ban on the export of unprocessed timber from Ukraine.

Earlier, customs officers uncovered an attempt to illegally export 597 tons of sunflower oil, which is estimated at more than UAH 26 million. The oil was being transported across the Ukrainian-Hungarian border in ten railroad tank cars. The Odesa-based entrepreneur planned to export the products under foreign economic contracts with a Hungarian company as the buyer. However, while checking the legality of the export, customs officers sent a request to their foreign colleagues to confirm the authenticity of the transaction.

Кирило Бойко