Smuggler with goods worth 15 million detained on the border with Odesa region

On the border with Moldova, a smuggler was exposed who was trying to import a batch of e-cigarettes worth almost UAH 14.5 million to Odesa region.

According to the press service of the Bureau of Economic Security, the offender was a 34-year-old Romanian citizen who was traveling through the Starokozache checkpoint and chose the "green corridor" - a simplified customs control lane - to avoid declaring the cargo.

During the inspection of the minibus in the luggage compartment, border guards found cardboard boxes filled with excisable electronic cigarettes without excise stamps. The man planned to deliver the vapes to one of the cities of Odesa region for further sale.

In total, detectives of the SBU Territorial Department in Odesa region seized almost 17 thousand units of illegal goods. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing on the grounds of a criminal offense stipulated by Part 2 Article 15 and Article 201-4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (smuggling of excisable goods).

Earlier, the BES detectives exposed a resident of Odesa who stored counterfeit cigarettes of well-known brands in a warehouse. The total value of the goods is almost UAH 6 million.

Another resident of Odesa organized underground production of cigarettes and then sold them on local markets. During the searches, the SBU seized goods worth over UAH 11 million.

The BES detectives also served suspicion notices to four people who set up illegal cigarette production on an industrial scale in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi.

In addition, law enforcement officers arrested a man who, together with six accomplices, set up a cigarette supply channel from Pakistan. This illegal business generated a monthly profit of almost $200,000.

Ірина Глухова