Botosani Border Police: 7,500 packs of cigarettes - seized, smugglers flee to Ukraine

Border police officers in Botosani seized 7,500 packs of cigarettes following an operation on the range of Oroftiana locality, on the border with Ukraine, spokesperson for the Territorial Border Police Service (STPF) Botosani, Minodora Racnea said on Monday, agerpres reports.

According to the STPF official, all the people involved in cigarette smuggling managed to flee on the territory of Ukraine, as soon as the Romanian border police noticed.

"The border police officers with the Dorohoi Border Police and STPF Botosani organized an action on the line of combating cigarette smuggling, in their area of jurisdiction. Thus, during the action, around 16:15 hrs, several people carrying large cartons of cigarettes were spotted in the direction of the border town of Oroftiana, and when they noticed the border police officers, the people abandoned the packs of cigarettes and dispersed in different directions, retreating to the territory of the neighboring state," Racnea specified.

The Romanian border police soon notified the Ukrainian border authorities for a joint investigation of the event.

The cartons abandoned by smugglers contained 7,500 packs of cigarettes, worth 74,414 lei.

In this case, the border police officers are conducting investigations for committing the crimes of smuggling and illegal crossing of the state border in order to detect and identify all the persons involved.