A court in the Pskov region ruled on the case of large-scale cigarette smuggling.

The Nevelsky District Court of the Pskov region sentenced an entrepreneur and a freight forwarder driver for smuggling cigarettes in the amount of 39.9 million rubles. This is reported by the regional SU TFR and the joint press service of the courts of the region.

It was established that on October 17, 2024, the defendants illegally imported more than 309.5 thousand packs of cigarettes into the territory of the Russian Federation from Belarus. The products were stored in a special cache in the tank trailer of a MAN truck driven by a resident of a neighboring state.

The total cost of unmarked tobacco products amounted to 39.93 million rubles. The cigarettes were stored in warehouses in Pskov, from where they were then shipped to other regions of the Russian Federation for further sale, the Pskov News Feed writes. The money received from the sale of cigarettes was redirected to the organizers of the criminal group in the Republic of Belarus.

The court found both the driver and the businessman guilty under Part 3 of Article 226.1 (smuggling) and paragraphs "a, b" of Part 6 of Article 171.1 (storage, transportation for the sale of unmarked tobacco products by an organized group on an especially large scale). Both were sentenced to nine years and six months in prison to be served in a high-security penal colony and fined 1.5 million rubles.

In addition, property seized during the investigation was confiscated to the State's income. This is 33.5 million rubles, three vehicles, several mobile phones and more.

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