– KAS officers from the Lower Silesian Customs and Tax Office, working with CBŚP officers from the Wrocław Board and officers from the Criminal Bureau of the Slovak Customs Service, dismantled an international criminal group involved in cigarette production. One of the most advanced technological lines for cigarette production was dismantled, together with components used in their production, such as cigarette tubes and packaging – explains Agnieszka Rzeźnicka-Gniadek, press spokeswoman for the Lower Silesian KAS.
At the illegal factory, which was located in Greater Poland, officers secured more than 5.5 million cigarettes bearing a protected trademark, as well as dried tobacco and cut tobacco weighing 11 tonnes.
Spokeswoman: – The value of the seized tobacco products was estimated at more than PLN 4.4 million, while the sale of the illegal tobacco products would have failed to generate more than PLN 10 million for the state budget in excise duty and VAT.
As many as nine people were detained. The suspects were charged, among other things, with participation in an organized criminal group, tax evasion and failure to disclose items subject to taxation, manufacturing tobacco products without the required registration, as well as marking goods with a protected trademark that the detained individuals had no right to use. All nine were placed in temporary custody by the court.