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Police are conducting today, under the coordination of the Department for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terror (DIICOT) 28 raids in Suceava County at addresses of individual suspected of smuggling cigarettes, 18 of whom will be taken for questioning, according to AGERPRES.
"Investigations have shown that since 2019 a crime ring specialising in qualified smuggling has illegally imported in Romania approximately 11,000,000 contraband cigarettes that would later be traded on the domestic market. The damage is estimated at over 1,600,000 euros," reads a press statement released by the Romanian Police General Inspectorate (IGPR) on Thursday.
According to investigators, the cigarettes were smuggled to Romania via the green border between Romania and Ukraine, through previously established places located in Suceava County, in cahoots with seven border guards from Brodina co-opted for the crime.
The operation is carried out by police officers with the Economic Crime Investigation Directorate, with specialist support provided by the Romanian Police's Special Operations Directorate.
The operation involves police officers from the county police inspectorates of Suceava, Neamţ, Bacau and fighters from the Service for Interventions and Special Ops, as well as specialists from the General Customs Directorate and the Border Police.
