On the orders of the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office, 5 people suspected of operating in an organized criminal group involved in trading cigarettes and tobacco without Polish excise duty markings were arrested on September 24 in the Lower Silesian and Łódź Voivodeships.
– As a result of the searches, cigarettes of various brands and smoking tobacco were seized – prosecutor Ewa Węglarowicz-Makowska, press spokesperson for the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office, reports.
The suspects were brought to the prosecutor’s office, where they were charged with participating—from October 14, 2022, to March 30, 2023—in an organized criminal group and committing fiscal offences involving the possession and trade of illegal excise goods. The spokesperson said: – These activities resulted in a shortfall in public-law receivables from VAT and excise duty amounting to a total of over PLN 9,142,863.
The 5 detainees were placed under property bail ranging from PLN 5,000 to PLN 50,000, police supervision, and bans on contacting their co-suspects and leaving the country.
The prosecutor:
The suspects are men aged between 53 and 80 from the Lower Silesian and Łódź Voivodeships. Some of them had previously been convicted of similar offences.