The National Police have shut down two illegal tobacco factories in the Kharkiv and Lviv regions
Law enforcement officers have shut down two clandestine tobacco factories operating in the Kharkiv and Lviv regions. According to the National Police, the production facilities were located within industrial estates near Kharkiv and the town of Zhovkva in the Lviv region.
According to the investigation, the factories were manufacturing tobacco products under various brand names and selling them on the consumer market. Accommodation for the workers was provided directly on the factory premises.
Operatives from the National Police’s Department of Strategic Investigations, in conjunction with the Economic Security Bureau and the Office of the Prosecutor General, established that these production facilities were not linked to one another. According to law enforcement officials, residents of the Lviv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Khmelnytskyi, Rivne and Kharkiv regions were involved in their activities.
The factories operated behind closed doors. To ensure the uninterrupted operation of the production lines and to conceal the significant consumption of electricity, the organisers installed diesel-powered power stations.
In the Lviv region, filterless cigarettes were manufactured. The facility’s capacity allowed for the production of up to 70,000 packets per day. In the Kharkiv region, filtered cigarettes were produced at a maximum capacity of up to 60,000 packets per day.
The finished products were sold throughout Ukraine via the retail network, Telegram channels and postal operators. Ukrainian excise duty stamps of unknown origin were affixed to the packets.
During the operations, law enforcement officers seized products and equipment with a total value of around 60 million hryvnias.
In the Lviv region, property with an estimated value of 50 million hryvnias was seized, including 27,000 packets of cigarettes, one tonne of tobacco, 74 boxes of filters, three pallets of packaging material, as well as 302 rolls of cigarette paper, foil and packaging film.
In the Kharkiv region, goods worth around 10 million hryvnias were seized. These included nearly 88,000 packets of cigarettes, over 2.5 tonnes of tobacco, 13 rolls of cigarette paper and 411 packets of printed materials.
In addition, law enforcement officers seized production lines from both factories, generators, mobile phones, draft records and cash.
A pre-trial investigation is being conducted under Article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for liability for the illegal manufacture, storage, sale or transport for the purpose of sale of excise goods.
The National Police reiterated that, in accordance with Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of a crime until their guilt has been proven in accordance with the law and established by a court conviction.
