A criminal group was neutralized in Lviv before they could sell five million hryvnias worth of e-cigarettes

A group of people who organized the sale of counterfeit e-cigarettes was exposed in Lviv region. During the searches, goods worth more than five million hryvnias were seized. This was reported by the Bureau of Economic Security, according to UNN.

Details

It is noted that the sale of e-cigarettes without excise tax stamps and with excise tax stamps with signs of counterfeiting took place without a license for wholesale or retail trade in tobacco products. The network of stores and outlets was located in Lviv and Lviv region. The BES detectives conducted searches at the places of sale of cigarettes and residences of the offenders.

As a result, more than 8,000 polymer containers of various volumes with e-cigarette liquids, containers, labels, draft records, computer equipment, etc. were seized. The estimated value of the seized cigarettes is over UAH 5 million,

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Director of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute Oleksandr Ruvin saidthat due to the growing popularity of e-cigarettes, the institution's specialists have been conducting more research on tobacco products for electric heating and e-liquids more often.

“Since the beginning of the year, we have been systematically assigned to examine classic tobacco products, electrically heated tobacco products, so-called HTPs, and e-cigarette liquids. The recent increase in popularity and associated risks of e-cigarettes has been even greater than that of conventional cigarettes. In almost every assigned examination, experts are provided with up to 150-200 objects, i.e. samples of the relevant products, each of which must be properly examined,” Ruvin said.