Smuggling worth $4 million: containers with cigarettes seized at Greater Odesa port – photos

Border guards, in cooperation with the Economic Security Bureau (ESBU), seized three 40-foot shipping containers with 2 million packs of smuggled cigarettes worth UAH 165.5 million ($4 million) at one of the ports of Greater Odesa, according to statements from the ESBU and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

The cigarettes, lacking excise stamps, were disguised as duty-free goods and labeled as originating from Egypt, Portugal, and Switzerland. In reality, they were produced at a Ukrainian factory for export to Thailand and the UAE.

Authorities discovered that a group had been purchasing and distributing illegally manufactured cigarettes domestically and internationally through container shipments for over a year.

A pretrial investigation is ongoing to identify all individuals involved in the illegal activity.