AADE: Strong blow to cigarette smuggling in Piraeus

The customs inspectors of the Independent Public Revenue Authority (AADE), in Piraeus, managed to strike yet another strong blow to the smuggling of cigarettes. Using the special X-RAY machine, the detector dog Kal, and software for risk analysis and targeting of suspicious loads, they located nine containers, which contained 98 million cigarettes. The corresponding taxes and duties amount to 21 million euros.

Three containers came from the United Arab Emirates and China, were unloaded at the port of Piraeus, with final recipient companies in Montenegro and Slovakia. In order not to arouse suspicion, the traffickers had declared them as “Printing Paper” and “Paper Bags” merchandise.

However, these products were only present in the first two loading rows of each container, with the aim of disorienting the law enforcement authorities and hiding the cartons of cigarettes, which made up the rest of the cargo.

The remaining six containers started from the United Arab Emirates, China and Thailand, and, via the port of Piraeus, were destined for Greece and Cyprus. In the shipping documents they were declared as “Tools, Shoes and Generators”. However, here too, these products were only in the first two unloading rows. The identification of three of them resulted from AADE’s cooperation with foreign prosecution services and the remaining three with the Coordination Operations Center.

Currently, the AADE customs services have intensified their investigations to identify the persons and companies involved, while it is believed that this international ring is even larger, with tentacles in many other European and Asian countries.

RES-EMP

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