Smoke mixtures: where illegal tobacco comes from in Russia
Counterfeit cigarettes continue to be sold in Russia, despite the active opposition of the authorities. Underground workshops operate both domestically and abroad. In particular, huge shipments of counterfeit goods come from Belarus and East Asia. The Interior Ministry reported on the seizure of a large batch of steam generators and electronic cigarettes and nicotine-containing liquids imported into the country with a batch of soft toys and household appliances. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Business regions
In April, it became known about the exposure of a large illegal production of cigarettes in the Rostov region — only finished products in the workshops were seized for 343.5 million rubles (over 2 million packs). In addition, 450,000 counterfeit excise stamps were found. There were six production lines for the manufacture and packaging of goods.
An investigation into businessmen who sold counterfeit cigarettes under the guise of well-known brands has been completed in Orsk. During the searches (they were conducted at 20 addresses), police officers seized 30,000 packs of counterfeit cigarettes and about 1 million rubles. The damage to the copyright holders amounted to more than 5 million rubles. The product was purchased online. A man with a large shipment of counterfeit cigarettes (over 1,100 packs) was also recently detained without excise stamps in the Chelyabinsk region. And cigarettes worth 14 million rubles were seized from a 35-year-old resident of Vichuga (Ivanovo region). The goods were sold both wholesale and retail. Another large network of tobacco "workshops" was liquidated in the Moscow region, where police seized 225 million rubles worth of counterfeit nicotine.
"These workshops are often located on the territory of former industrial facilities or on the territory of existing industrial sites," a police source tells Izvestia. — Employees can be representatives of mono-ethnic communities, often foreigners. These people won't tell anyone too much, they certainly won't tell the security forces.
Traffic from Belarus
One of the important markers of the dominance of counterfeit products remains the data of customs officers, who with enviable regularity encounter attempts to import cigarettes into the country bypassing the rules. Izvestia's source in law enforcement agencies reported several investigations into violations of Russia's anti-smoking legislation and customs regulations. For example, customs officers tried to stop a truck coming from Belarus on the M1 highway, but the driver disappeared and left the car. More than a million packs of filtered cigarettes were found in the cargo hold. A case has been opened on the production, acquisition, storage, and transportation of unmarked tobacco products on an especially large scale.
However, according to Alexey Gavrishev, a lawyer and managing partner of AVG Legal, stopping and inspecting a truck from Belarus in Russia is not so simple.
— As a general rule, Russian law enforcement agencies should not have checked such a car without any guidance, since Belarus, where the car was coming from, is part of the Eurasian Economic Union with Russia, and all customs procedures for such cargo had to go through in Belarus, - says the lawyer. — Therefore, they wanted to detain such a car for exactly something else, especially since the transportation of excisable goods without excise stamps does not constitute any offense.
In January, a member of a group transporting cigarettes of "Belarusian origin" was detained at the 308th kilometer of the M9 Baltia highway. The goods were hidden in a metal container on a Mercedes-Benz truck. The Russian driver had no documents for the cargo. Upon inspection, it was found that a batch of almost 200 thousand cigarettes was not marked with excise stamps of the Russian Federation. The cost of the batch is estimated at 27 million rubles.
Belarus has long been a key supplier of illegal cigarettes to the Russian market in the European part of the country, a law enforcement source told Izvestia. The reasons lie in the difference in the value of the excise stamp and the selling price of tobacco products in Russia and Belarus. Some brands of cigarettes in the neighboring country are more than two times cheaper than in Russia.
— This makes the supply of tobacco products from Belarus especially profitable for smugglers.
According to him, the production of cigarettes in Belarus is more flexible and cheaper than in Russia. They are then hidden in cargo such as scrap metal or other goods to minimize the chance of detection. Smugglers usually choose less secure sections of the border, using both official border crossings and more vulnerable areas such as forested areas and sparsely populated areas.
Nicotine from the East
Another supply channel for illegal tobacco products is across the border with China. The geography of traffic covers the eastern part of Russia.
In April, the fact of illegal trafficking in tobacco and nicotine-containing products was revealed, Rosalokoltabakcontrol reported.
"During an inspection of a container-type warehouse in the city of Vladivostok, as well as motor transport in the city of Ussuriysk, storage for the purpose of selling tobacco products without documents, <...> without labeling with federal special stamps and means of identification, with counterfeit federal special stamps and unidentifiable Data Matrix codes was revealed. 9064 packs of cigarettes of various names were withdrawn from circulation," the service said in a statement.
According to the Izvestia source, the products were manufactured in China. Another large batch of nicotine-containing products (including electronic nicotine delivery systems) was seized in Yekaterinburg in March. A total of 6853 packages of nicotine-containing liquid and 3247 pieces of medicinal products, presumably of Chinese origin, were found.
Over 45,000 electronic devices, 200 boxes of nicotine-containing liquid, and 600 packages of snus with a total value of over 40 million rubles were seized by police in Khakassia. All products were imported to the region from East Asia. Seven people were detained.
"Computer equipment, equipment for printing fake markings, five vehicles, financial and business documentation and other items of evidentiary value were also seized. Illegal products are sent for expert examination to determine the level of nicotine content," said Irina Volk, an official representative of the Russian Interior Ministry.
Opinion
— At first glance, it seems like banal cigarette smuggling, — Konstantin Trapaidze, chairman of the bar Association "Your Legal Attorney", tells about the illegal import of nicotine-containing products into Russia. — However, the smuggling of excise goods is under special control, and at least there is already a crime here.
He clarified that in the case of counterfeit cigarettes on a particularly large scale, we can talk about using someone else's trademark, illegal business activities and a number of other crimes.
— Significant budget revenues come from excise taxes. When goods enter Russia in this way, they are often not of very good quality, although contraband can be of high quality. But first of all, these are significant losses for the budget," says Trapaidze.
According to the lawyer, now, thanks to the introduction of special stamps containing information about the origin of goods entered into a single database, such schemes have become more difficult for smugglers.
How to implement
According to Izvestia's source in law enforcement agencies, products manufactured in clandestine workshops in Russia are often transported to small non-chain stores in regions where they are sold among the local population under the guise of legal products.
— The trend of recent years is the remote sale of tobacco products through delivery services, — says the interlocutor of Izvestia. — In general, this makes it difficult to identify the perpetrators during operational and investigative measures.
Also, according to him, a huge flow of illegal tobacco circulates in large markets, primarily in the capital.
— They advertise their products, including through Telegram channels. Messengers linked to phone numbers registered in other countries are used for communication. The discount is significant, both ordinary citizens and the owners of retail outlets buy cigarettes there," the source says.
According to the National Scientific Competence Center in the field of combating Illicit Trafficking in Industrial Products, from July to September, almost 12.5 thousand liters and over 36 thousand units of liquids for medical devices were confiscated. Most of them were seized in Bashkiria, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov, Voronezh and Omsk regions and Krasnodar Territory.
According to open sources, the country's budget does not receive about 100 billion rubles due to the counterfeit tobacco market.
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