Detectives from the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) of Kyiv Region announced the discovery of a scheme for the shadow sale of excise-free tobacco products of famous world brands. Law enforcement officers seized over 9,000 packs of counterfeit cigarettes.
This was reported today, May 21, by the BEB press service.
The investigation established that the members of the group purchased counterfeit cigarettes without excise stamps. They then sold them en masse via websites and popular messengers. The suspects sent orders throughout Ukraine by mail, and used their own transport to transport large batches of products.
BEB informed that in Kyiv and Chernivtsi regions, detectives found a large amount of excise-free goods, mobile phones, laptops, and draft records of income and client base.
“Over 9,000 packs of counterfeit cigarettes, a truck, and cash totaling almost 2 million hryvnias were seized from illegal circulation,” the report says.
Currently, the investigation is ongoing under Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal acquisition, storage, transportation and sale of excisable goods committed by a group of persons in a prior conspiracy). The sanction of the articles provides for a fine of up to ten thousand non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens with the confiscation and destruction of illegally manufactured goods. Detectives are establishing the supply channels of raw materials and all participants in the illegal business.
In December last year, it was reported that an underground cigarette manufacturing workshop was uncovered in the Brovary district. It was set up in one of the private houses. There, industrial lines for the production and packaging of cigarettes were installed, which produced more than 4 thousand packs per day. The finished products (without excise tax stamps) were sold under the guise of cigarettes of well-known brands, mainly in the Kyiv region, as well as through postal services across Ukraine.