Lithuanian customs found a consignment of contraband cigarettes worth 250 thousand euros in the cargo of “Belaruskali”

The Lithuanian customs service discovered a large smuggled consignment of cigarettes on a train with a cargo of the Belarusian fertilizer producer Belaruskali. About it informs Delfi with reference to the Lithuanian Customs Criminal Service.

According to the ministry, 80,000 packs of NZ Gold and Minsk capital cigarettes from the Neman Grodno factory were found. The cost of counterfeit cigarettes with taxes payable exceeds 259 thousand euros. The cargo was found at the Stasilai railway station.

Lithuanian customs officers have launched a pre-trial investigation of cigarette smuggling. The service claims that recently counterfeit products have been found almost every week.

As the newspaper notes, smugglers use rail transport of all types to transport illegal cigarettes – open and closed wagons, containers, cisterns. At the same time, for the transportation of illegal products, they equip caches behind a double wall, and also “mix” boxes of cigarettes into the official cargo or equip caches in it. In such cases, counterfeit goods are often hidden in bulk cargo that is difficult to verify – for example, potassium chloride fertilizers or wood. One of the most popular caches is called “coffins” – cigarettes are placed in specially cut cavities in trees.

Lithuanian customs reported that it is difficult to find counterfeit due to the large flow of goods and due to the limited inspection time.

We add, Belarus is an is the largest source of illegal tobacco in Russia, with Belarusian-made cigarettes accounting for 36% of the total volume of illegal cigarettes sold in the country.

formerly Belarusian edition Nexta told about criminal schemes of enrichment of Alexander Lukashenko, among them were illegal re-export and smuggling of cigarettes.