A large criminal group made up of Romanian and
Hungarian citizens which set up, on the territory of Hungary, an
illegal factory for the purpose of manufacturing large quantities
of counterfeited cigarettes, was dismantled following the
cooperation of Romanian and Hungarian authorities.
Based on the information provided by the Romanian border policemen,
the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary seized at
Szolnok, Hungary, 150 km from the border with Romania, two lines of
cigarettes production, over 31 tones of tobacco which was to be
processed, as well as hundred of thousands counterfeit tax
seals.
From the information provided by the Hungarian side, the excise
duties of the seized excise products was over 2 million Euro.
The leader of the group was a Romanian citizen residing in Oradea ,
Bihor county, known with criminal records for committing the crimes
of tax evasion and smuggling with excisable products.
In the course of August 2012, border policemen received information according to which several Romanian and Hungarian citizens set up a criminal group, having as object of activity the illegal production and counterfeiting of large quantities of cigarettes destined for Romanian market.
Consequently, border policemen within Territorial Service of Border Police Iaºi and General Inspectorate of Border Police, under the coordination of Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism prosecutors, in cooperation with Romanian Intelligence Service from Timis, Iaºi and Arad, as well as with the support of the General Directorate for Intelligence and Internal Protection - Central Structure, International Police Cooperation Center - SELEC Regional Center and EUROPOL have initiated specific activities, for the purpose of identification and monitoring the network members and collect evidence of the illegal activity of the entire organized criminal group.
Thus, it was ascertained that the group leader was a Romanian citizen, residing in Bihor, which coordinated a group made up of both Romanian and Hungarian citizens, specialized in the production of counterfeited cigarettes of inferior quality which were distributed on the black markets from Romania, Hungary and Italy and other community states.
Romanian investigators established that the criminal group set up in Szolnok, Hungary, (at about 150 km from the border with Romania ), a factory of illegal production and counterfeiting of cigarettes. Following the specific activities it has been established that the group intended to produce an important quantity of counterfeited cigarettes, which was to be transported including to Romania, in order to be traded on the black market.
The group leader, known with criminal records for crimes of smuggling with excisable products (cigarettes), as well as the network members were cautious, constantly trying to keep the secrecy over their illegal activities and to mislead the police. Thus they communicated both in Romanian and Hungarian language, using the term flowers for tobacco and they purchased a powerful vacuum cleaner for preventing the smell of smoke to reach the external environment.
Based on the information provided by the officers of Border Police, on 20 November 2012, the Hungarian authorities went in two locations from Szolnok - Hungary, where they detected and seized an entire cigarettes production line, including tobacco cutting and fermenting machines:
450.000 cartons of counterfeit Plugarul cigarettes; 31.000 kg fine-cut tobacco - equivalent of 1.650.000 cigarette packs; 856 kg tobacco leaves; 363 000 pieces of counterfeit Moldovan tax seals; 1230 km cigarette paper and cigarette - box paper.From the information provided by the Hungarian party, the value of the excise duties for the seized excise products amounted to 586.000.000 HUF (equivalent of 2.077.561 Euro), out of which 294.000.000 HUF (equivalent of 1.042.325 Euro) represents the contained VAT.
In the respective action two Romanian citizens were retained and they are currently in Hungarian custody.
After the completion of the activity, the Director General for Criminal Affairs, Brigadier General dr. LASZLO VANKO transmitted to the General Inspectorate of Border Police a letter thanking for the way in which the cooperation took place, underlining the important role of Romanian border policemen in successfully completing the operation. The Director General expressed his conviction that the excellent cooperation relations established between the Romanian and Hungarian institutions will result in further significant results.