Customs officers at the “Red Bridge” customs checkpoint have seized 433,840 packs of undeclared, non-excise cigarettes with a total market value of 2,429,504 GEL, the Revenue Service of Georgia says.
The contraband was discovered in a truck registered in Belarus, which, according to documents, was transporting 290 metal doors to the Czech Republic.
The Revenue Service says the vehicle was stopped based on risk analysis. During a detailed inspection, officers found that the cigarettes were hidden inside the metal doors.
A total of 1,496 boxes of undeclared cigarettes were first discovered during the opening of one of the doors, while the full inspection revealed 433,840 packs of various brands of filter cigarettes, including “Menthol Queen”, “NZ” and “Minsk”.
The Revenue Service says the case was detected in coordination with the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance, to which the materials have been already submitted for further response.
The investigation is ongoing.
