Officials of the Customs Department of the State Revenue Service (SRS) and the State Border Guard, during the control of cargo trains, discovered 137,980 contraband cigarettes (6,899 packs of cigarettes), which had been imported from Belarus. Cigarettes were hidden in wagons with loads of cast iron.
On February 3, 2023, at the Indra customs control point (MKP), while carrying out control of the composition of a cargo train arriving from Belarus, customs officials, including customs canine specialists with working dogs trained to search for tobacco products, and State Border Guard officers found hidden, undeclared goods in several wagons with iron cargo goods – cigarettes. In the wagons, under a layer of cast iron pieces, there were boxes with 50,000 “NZ Gold” and “Premier” cigarettes (2,500 packs of cigarettes) with excise tax stamps of the Republic of Belarus.
On the same day, the customs officials of the MKP of the Freeport of Riga, based on the information provided by the company’s representative about cigarettes found during cargo unloading, conducted an in-depth inspection of the wagon with the iron cargo. As a result of the control, 17,980 cigarettes (899 packs of cigarettes) “NZ Gold” and “Premier” with excise stamps of the Republic of Belarus were seized.
On the other hand, on February 2, officials of Indra MKP, while analyzing the scanned images of the train composition, suspected the presence of undeclared goods in several wagons. In the course of customs control, customs officers took out 50,000 “NZ Gold” cigarettes (2,500 packs of cigarettes) with excise stamps of the Republic of Belarus.
While inspecting the composition of another train with working dogs, customs canine experts suspected the illegal movement of cigarettes in two wagons with iron cargo. As a result of the control, customs officials seized 20,000 “NZ Gold” cigarettes (1000 packs of cigarettes) with excise stamps of the Republic of Belarus.
The amount of taxes unpaid to the state for the seized cigarettes is approximately 27,000 euros.
When signs of a criminal offense were detected during customs control, the case materials were handed over to the Tax and Customs Police Department of the SRS for decision-making on the initiation of criminal proceedings.
