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Polish Border Guards have broken up an international criminal group

Officers from the Vistula Border Guard Unit liquidated an international, organized criminal group dealing with the illegal production, distribution and smuggling of excise goods. As a result of the action, 6 Poles and an Armenian were arrested. This is the next step in implementing this matter.

The detainees were charged with participating in and leading a criminal group. Temporary arrests were applied to five of them, and to the other two men – freedom of prevention measures in the form of a ban on leaving the country, police supervision and property guarantees in the amount of PLN 5,000. and 50 thousand zlotys

The men were detained last week (July 28, 2020) in the Mazowieckie and Kujawsko-Pomorskie provinces. The officers of the Vistula Border Guard Unit operated with the support of implementation groups from 5 Border Guard divisions (Maritime, Nadbużański, Karpacki, Bieszczadzki and Podlasie Border Guard Divisions). During the activities, 20 objects were searched, 13 pieces of firearms, illegal cut tobacco, significant amounts of cash and several hundred silver and gold collector coins were revealed.

On the basis of the collected evidence, the suspects were charged with participation in an organized criminal group engaged in the illegal production and trade of tobacco products.

The activities were also attended by representatives of Europol who, from the very beginning of the case, actively supported officers in the field of operational analysis, computer forensics and the preparation of reports, which facilitated rapid coordination and information exchange at European level.

The detentions were a continuation of earlier actions from this year. It was then that officers of the Vistula Border Guard Unit revealed two thriving cigarette factories, secured illegal tobacco products with a total value of over PLN 7.6 million, and detained 21 people, of whom the court applied temporary detention to six. The State Treasury’s losses due to unpaid VAT excise duty on the group’s operations are estimated at over PLN 12 million. More about the event.

In total, as part of the activities undertaken in the investigation and other preparatory proceedings carried out in parallel, officers from the Nadwiślański Border Guard Division detained 35 suspects, and the estimated depletion of the State Treasury resulting from due taxes may amount to several dozen million zlotys.