– During a routine inspection on the A4 motorway, officers from the Lower Silesian Customs and Tax Office stopped a van with Polish registration plates for inspection. The driver turned out to be a Latvian national, reports Agnieszka Rzeźnicka-Gniadek, press spokesperson for the Lower Silesian KAS. – The documents presented by the driver, both for the vehicle and for the transported cargo consisting of furniture boards, raised the officers’ suspicions.
The suspicions were quickly confirmed by Shila, a service dog trained to detect tobacco and drugs. It turned out that 400,000 cigarettes without Polish excise stamps had been hidden in specially cut openings in the furniture boards. The total value of the contraband was PLN 474,000.
Spokesperson:
The vehicle was secured, and the Latvian national will face charges for attempting to smuggle illegal cigarettes; he was charged with excise-goods trafficking.