As a result of operations conducted from 29 August to 1 September by officers from the Border Guard Post in Zgorzelec and the Łódź Customs and Tax Office, with the support of officers from the Operations Security Division of the Nadodrzański Border Guard Unit, an illegal operation involving changing the designated use of heating oil and placing it on the market as diesel fuel was dismantled.
During the operation, it was established that one of the companies from Płock was importing substantial quantities of heating oil from Germany, which was supposedly destined for Lithuania and Latvia. It emerged, however, that the declared shipments were not leaving the country, and that at a fuel depot in Łódź Voivodeship the heating oil was being converted into diesel fuel.
The site where the heating oil was being decolourised was located in Piotrków County. After entering the decolourisation facility, officers caught four men in the act. They secured a technological line for decolourising heating oil, chemicals and enriching substances.
Similar operations were carried out at eight other locations in Łódź and Mazowieckie Voivodeships.
More than 110 officers of the National Revenue Administration and the Nadodrzański Border Guard Unit took part in the operation, conducted under the supervision of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Piotrków Trybunalski.
It is estimated that from June to August this year, the company may have introduced the contents of more than 200 tankers carrying heating oil—over 6 million litres—onto the illegal market.
The prosecutor’s office charged 15 people with operating in an organised criminal group. The owner of the transport company and her husband were charged with leading the group.
As a result of the operation, officers seized nearly 600,000 litres of fuel, tractor units and tankers with a combined value of PLN 5 million.
The suspects were charged with exposing the State Treasury to a reduction in excise duty and fuel charge revenues amounting to at least PLN 15.4 million. They face up to five years in prison.