Officers of the Lower Silesian and Greater Poland Customs and Tax Offices inspected shipments at the distribution center of a courier company in Wrocław.
The selected parcels contained, among other things, electronic cigarettes, e-cigarette liquids and other excise goods without Polish excise stamps.
Further actions led the officers to a location where additional illegal goods could be stored. At the address indicated, SCS officers, together with CBŚP officers, found two storage rooms.
Thousands of liters of liquids and e-cigarettes in the warehouse
The rooms contained e-cigarettes, liquids for them, parts for vaporization devices and other excise goods without Polish excise stamps.
In total, the authorities secured:
- nearly 4,000 liters of e-cigarette liquids,
- more than 134,000 e-cigarettes,
- sets of e-cigarette parts,
- device batteries.
Three people worked in the warehouse—two Nepalese citizens and one Chinese citizen.
The secured outer packages were marked with labels indicating, among other things, that they originated in China. The goods did not have Polish excise stamps.
More than PLN 25 million in potential losses
According to the authorities’ findings, if the secured goods had been placed on the market, the State Treasury would have lost more than PLN 16 million in excise tax and nearly PLN 9 million in VAT.
In total, this amounts to more than PLN 25 million in potential tax liabilities.
Three people charged
In connection with the case, three people were charged with participating in an organized criminal group and committing fiscal offenses.
One of the men was placed in temporary custody. The other two men were subject to non-custodial measures, including the confiscation of their passports and a ban on leaving the country.
The case is being conducted under the supervision of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Wrocław. The investigation is ongoing and may expand.