Smuggling of $4 million worth — a scheme in the Odesa port
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Border guards of the Odesa together with detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine exposed a large-scale illegal business scheme. The dealers organized the sale of cigarettes without excise stamps abroad. The goods were seized.
This was reported by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine on Wednesday, December 4.
What was found at the port
Border guards inspected three containers in one of the ports of the Odesa region. They found 4.1 thousand boxes of smuggled cigarettes. This is more than 2 million tobacco products of various brands without excise tax stamps.
The cargo documents indicated that the goods were allegedly manufactured in Egypt, Portugal and Switzerland and intended for sale in Duty Free stores. But in fact, the cigarettes were made at a Ukrainian factory and were intended to be exported to Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
According to preliminary estimates, the total value of the goods is UAH 165.6 million ($4 million). The investigation is ongoing.
It should be reminded, that earlier in the Odesa region smuggled aluminum billets were detained. We also reported on the detention of an entrepreneur at customs. He wanted to export 597 tons of sunflower oil from Ukraine using forged documents.
