Smuggled cigarettes worth 60 million hryvnias from Ukraine did not get to the EU

Chernivtsi region served a notice of suspicion to one of the organizers of a smuggling channel for cigarettes to the European Union. The suspect was responsible for renting warehouses where the smuggled goods were stored. This was reported by the Bureau of Economic Security, UNN reports.

It is noted that the suspects used trucks with tanker semi-trailers to export the goods abroad. In turn, the suspect was responsible for renting warehouses and logistics.

During the searches, the BES detectives seized over 800 thousand packs of counterfeit cigarettes, which the organizers of the scheme planned to transport across the state border of Ukraine to the EU countries. Their estimated value is over UAH 60 million.

"The co-organizer of the criminal activity was served a notice of suspicion of committing criminal offenses under Part 1 of Article 204, Part 2 of Article 201-4 and Part 3 of Article 229 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. As a measure of restraint, the court imposed on him custody with the possibility of bail in the amount of UAH 10 million," the BES said in a statement.

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Oleksandr Ruvin, Director of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, in an exclusive interview with UNN, stated that the state and legal producers should be interested in reducing the number of counterfeit tobacco products. At the same time, there should be a clear understanding that only indisputable evidence from forensic experts makes it possible to bring offenders to justice.

"It is the expertise that is evidence in court, so this is a joint task for both expert institutions and law enforcement agencies, all government agencies involved. Of course, the processes are very complicated, not all manufacturers are open to cooperation, and there are other difficulties. There are major players in Ukraine - tobacco manufacturers are large companies that are interested in ensuring that both the state and themselves do not suffer losses from counterfeiting. After all, if there are fewer counterfeits, the manufacturer will sell more of its legal products, make more profit, and, accordingly, more taxes will go to the state budget. They are ready to provide all samples, open data, and cooperate in every way. However, there are cases where the opposite is true, and it is logical to assume that in those cases there are a lot of risks, we are talking about very large-scale losses for the state, which are measured in huge amounts," Ruvin said.