Employees of the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB), together with the Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police of Ukraine, uncovered illegal cigarette production in one of the villages of the Mukachevo district of the Transcarpathian region.
The entrance to the workshop was carefully disguised. The only way to get inside was through a hole in the wall, which was filled with piles of hay.
The factory was staffed by 4 people in shifts, producing approximately 20,000 packs of cigarettes per day. Tobacco products were packaged in packs with logos of Ukrainian and foreign manufacturers and fake excise tax stamps were affixed. The finished goods were taken out in several convoys daily and delivered to a wholesale buyer, who then sold the cigarettes on the local market, as well as in other regions of Western and Central Ukraine.
As a result of the searches, law enforcement officers seized a production line, over 50,000 packs of cigarettes, 2.5 tons of tobacco, almost 1 million excise tax stamps, 2 million empty packs for packaging cigarettes, more than 5 million boxes for packaging finished products, etc.
The estimated value of the seized tobacco products is UAH 5 million.
