Apparently, the refrigerator was filled with dairy products, namely 5,000 yogurts in kilogram packages, bound for Italy. He was standing at the pier of the port of Igoumenitsa, from where ships leave for the border, when the 64-year-old Bulgarian driver was approached by employees of the central port authority, informing him that they would start checking the cargo with an X-ray machine. It was noon on March 4th. During the inspection, it turned out that cardboard boxes with more than 350,000 packs of cigarettes were hidden behind pallets of yogurts. They didn’t have her special excise tape and it was imitations branded cigarettes (Winston Blue), which were produced in tobacco processing plant, which illegally acted on the territory of Greece. Illegal duty evasion cargo worth 1.5 million euros was confiscated and the 64-year-old Bulgarian driver arrested.

Cover … with bream

This could have been an isolated case if some time later, namely on the evening of May 13, the Coast Guard officers did not notice another refrigerator (driven by a 46-year-old Bulgarian) loaded with smuggled cigarettes. This time, 350,000 packages were hidden behind pallets of frozen fish and, in particular, bream. The employees of the Economic Police Department were informed about the above seizures, and after a short closed meeting on the 14th floor of the State Antimonopoly Service, they decided to look for information about two trucks with Bulgarian license plates that were seized in the city of Sochi. abbess.

It is estimated that more than 20 illegal cigarette factories have been found in Attica from 2018 to date, most of which are controlled by emigrants.

The events that followed revealed another tobacco factory operating illegally in Attica, with cigarettes being exported abroad, generating millions in revenue for smugglers. It is estimated that more than 20 illegal cigarette factories have been discovered in Attica from 2018 to date, most of which are controlled by emigrants from the former Soviet Union. Economic police officers searched for evidence, among other things, from traffic control cameras and GPS devices, and came to the conclusion that the refrigerators found in Igoumenitsa started their route from Attica, namely from Koropi. Undercover cops crowded the main streets of the area and soon tracked them down. trucks with Bulgarian plates, but also two IX registered to Cypriot owners, for entry and exit from the warehouse on Anagnosto street. After a two-month investigation, the police managed to find the end of the thread. On the morning of July 15, they raided the factory, arresting 11 people who worked there, confiscating 13 tons of tobacco in bulk, as well as equipment for making and packaging cigarettes. They also found 6 truckloads and one million ready-made Winston Blue cigarettes, similar to those Coast Guard officers found in a yogurt truck, with tax evasion estimated at almost 3.5 million euros. 9 of the detainees are citizens of Ukraine and Moldova and two foreigners from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The warehouse in Koropi was rented in November 2021 by a front company through a lawyer, who, however, declared ignorance of the case.

Connections

Although the investigation into the case is still at an early stage, police sources believe that processing the results could reveal links to recent cases of cigarette smuggling, which could shed light on the “identity” of the gang that controlled the gang. illegal factory in Koropi.

From Dubai to Piraeus

In May 2021, on a signal from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), customs authorities stopped 35 containers of smuggled cigarettes at the port of Piraeus. The illegal cargo started its journey from Dubai and, according to the shipping documents, had a virtual destination in Syria. A year later, history repeats itself. On a signal from their French counterparts, Piraeus customs officials have seized 9 containers of smuggled cigarettes in recent weeks at the container station in Neo Iconio. Most of them were sent from Dubai and were destined for Greece, Cyprus and the port of Bar in Montenegro. Are these two cases connected and which smugglers are behind them? “K” today unravels the tangle of two cases.

35 containers with 338 million smuggled cigarettes were loaded onto container ships (TENO, MEKONG, etc.) at Jebel Ali Port in Dubai in January 2021. In May of that year they were sent to Piraeus to receive diplomatic ramifications when the United Arab Emirates embassy in Athens demanded the release of the goods. In the shipping documents, the declared cargo was cigarettes (with trade names such as House of Kingdom and Silver), however, according to Greek news sources, most of the recipient companies did not exist.

According to classified OLAF intelligence files, the organizer of the cigarette shipment was a Syrian who was suspected of being involved in an international smuggling ring. Moreover, information about this person was still available to the British authorities and large tobacco companies. Finally, the preliminary investigation of the case was completed in May 2022, the materials are in the hands of the competent prosecution authorities, but the initiation of a criminal case has not yet reached. Officers from Greek and foreign agencies involved in the investigation estimated that most, if not all, of the smuggled cargo would end up in the EU, with unpaid taxes estimated at more than 70 million euros.

Dubai was the starting point for all seven of the nine containers of smuggled cigarettes seized in Piraeus in recent weeks. They were hidden behind pallets of tools, generators and shoes and were destined for Piraeus, Cyprus, Montenegro, as well as Slovakia and Hungary. Existing importing companies with a large turnover appear in shipping documents as recipients. Evidence that leads customs officers to conclude that the declarations in their hands are fake.

As for cigarettes, these are commercial brands that are found only on the “black market” such as Manchester, Williams, etc. It is being investigated whether a Greek smuggler, who has been accused in the past of smuggling cigarettes from Dubai into Greece, is behind the case, which, after initially being collected from warehouses in western Attica, he then trucked to EU countries.