The officers of the National Revenue Administration thwarted the smuggling of 420,000 packs of cigarettes near Budzisko (Podlaskie Voivodship). Contraband with an estimated market value exceeding PLN 6 million was traveling in a Lithuanian truck instead of the declared load of chipboards. The driver was arrested.
This is the largest smuggling of cigarettes this year thwarted by the customs and tax service in the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
The Lithuanian truck was stopped for inspection by officers CASH from Budzisko near the border with Lithuania.
There were Belarusian cigarettes in the trailer Tax Administration Chamber in Białystok
The state budget would lose over PLN 10 million
– According to the documents, there was supposed to be a load of chipboard in the semi-trailer. The car was X-rayed. When checking the semi-trailer, it turned out that instead of the declared goods, 420,000 were hidden in it. packs of Belarusian cigarettes – informed on Friday the press officer of the Podlasie KAS, Deputy Commissioner Maciej Czarnecki.
If the illegal goods entered the market, the state budget would lose over PLN 10 million (the value of the goods together with tax liabilities).
He faces up to 10 years in prison
The investigation into smuggling is supervised by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Suwałki. The Lithuanian driver was arrested by the court for three months. For such a large smuggling, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
The contraband is worth over PLN 6 millionTax Administration Chamber in Białystok
In the Podlaskie Voivodeship, it is both internal (with Lithuania) and external (with Belarus) EU border. There are no passport and customs checks on the Polish-Lithuanian border, and smuggling, mainly of cigarettes, is combated by mobile groups of KAS and the Border Guard, also supported by the police.
In mid-February, they broke up a criminal group
In mid-February, we wrote that checks are carried out at the border crossings with Belarusand KAS uses e.g. with cargo screening devices. The Podlasie Regional Office of the National Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the smuggling of cigarettes from Belarus to Poland on a large scale. Nearly twenty people were charged, including seven customs and tax officials.
Smuggling was thwarted near the Lithuanian borderTax Administration Chamber in Białystok
Officers of the Border Guard, KAS, CBSP and the Internal Inspection Office of the Ministry of Finance. According to the findings of the investigation, the broken criminal group could have smuggled over 18.8 million packs of cigarettes to Poland in 2020-2021 through a road crossing in Bobrowniki and a railway crossing in Terespol; State budget losses amount to PLN 437 million.
Main photo source: Tax Administration Chamber in Białystok