Border guards have uncovered a cigarette smuggling operation worth nearly 20 million hryvnias on the border with Romania
At the ‘Mamalyga’ border crossing, border guards foiled a large-scale attempt to smuggle tobacco products across the state border.
A lorry with a trailer, driven by a citizen of the Republic of Moldova, was heading from Ukraine to Romania. According to the accompanying documents, the vehicle was carrying fresh strawberries.
During border and customs checks, officials noticed discrepancies in the cargo. A check weighing revealed that the actual weight of the vehicle exceeded the declared weight by almost 3 tonnes.
The lorry was then directed to the ‘Porubne–Siret’ border crossing point for further scanning. The images obtained revealed anomalies suggesting that unauthorised goods might be concealed amongst the declared cargo.
During a thorough inspection, tobacco products without Ukrainian excise duty stamps were discovered concealed amongst pallets of fresh strawberries.
In total, law enforcement officers seized 357,000 packets of unfiltered ‘Ritm’ brand cigarettes, manufactured in the Republic of Moldova. The estimated value of the seized consignment is 19.3 million hryvnias.
A report was drawn up against the citizen of the Republic of Moldova for a breach of customs regulations under Part 1 of Article 483 of the Customs Code of Ukraine.
