Ukraine investigates large-scale cigarettes contraband from Belarus to EU
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A large-scale batch of cigarettes - 750 000 packs of illegally manufactured Marble and Ashima tobacco products - from Belarus was smuggled into the European Union via Ukraine.
The cigarettes were disguised as the Barchim washing powder, reports Radio Liberty. The illegal cargo passed two borders and four customs checks without a problem. The smuggling was revealed only when the truck carring the cigarettes got into a road accident in Romania.
Ukraine's Security Service has opened an investigation into this case and requested the copies of the accompanying documents for the shipped cargo.
According to Ukrainian investigative journalists, Marble and Ashima tobacco products intially were manufactured in China by Hongta Tobacco Group Co. Currently, the cigarettes of these brands are produced also in Moldova and even on the territory of some districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
