They produced cigarettes illegally. One of the suspects was taken from the plane

As stated in the announcement CBŚPin April, officers of the Department for Combating Organized Economic Crime of the Board of the Central Bureau of Investigation in Łódź, together with officers of the Łódź Customs and Tax Office in Łódź, found a professional cigarette production line. During the operations, six people were detained, including – according to investigators – one of the leaders and founders of an organized criminal group. About five million pieces of cigarettes illegally marked with registered trademarks of renowned companies and over half a ton of smoking tobacco without Polish excise stamps were seized.

Read also: The services busted a gang that was selling cigarettes without excise tax.

In August, officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Łódź Customs and Tax Office, with the support of officers of the Warsaw Okęcie Airport Police Station, detained the second – according to investigators' findings – leader and founders of the criminal group.

As a result of both actions, a total of seven people were detained. The detainees were brought to the District Prosecutor's Office in Piotrków Trybunalski, where they were charged with participating in an organized criminal group, committing crimes involving the production of tobacco products without the required entry in the register of producers of such products and marketing goods with counterfeit trademarks without Polish excise stamps. Additionally, the prosecutor charged two of the detained people with founding and leading an organized criminal group. By court decision, all detained persons were temporarily arrested.

The total market value of the secured tobacco products is over PLN three and a half million, while the losses to the State Treasury due to the reduction of excise tax in connection with the practice could amount to nearly PLN five million. The matter is of a developing nature.