Organized criminal group making counterfeit cigarettes, dismantled by police

Police and Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) prosecutors from Constanta dismantled an organized criminal group, specialized in the making of counterfeit cigarettes, with four people to be proposed for pre-trial detention following house searches in Hunedoara and Suceava counties, the Constanta County Police Inspectorate (IPJ) informed on Friday, Agerpres reports.

Following the raids, the police discovered a counterfeit cigarette factory set up underground, under a hall, at the home of one of the suspects.

"On February 1, the organized crime police officers from Constanta carried out 8 house search warrants in Hunedoara and Suceava counties, and a counterfeit cigarette factory was discovered, which operated outside the fiscal warehouse. (...) Investigations revealed that the building in which the factory was located was clandestinely connected to the electricity grid. Also, inside, there was discovered a jamming installation for any electronic signal," reads a press release issued by the IPJ.

According to the quoted source, 120,000 counterfeit cigarettes, 700 kilograms of shredded tobacco, 200,000 inscribed packages required in the production process and a transport vehicle were discovered and seized in order to continue the investigation.

"At the end of the searches, 4 warrants were enforced, with 3 persons being identified and brought in for hearings," the IPJ Constanta release mentioned.

Pre-trial detention for four people, aged between 36 and 44, of whom one is missing, will be proposed on Friday, for several crimes: setting up an organized crime group, making taxable products, the import, export, storage, offering for sale or sale of goods or services bearing false indications regarding patents for inventions.

"It should be noted that those under investigation are known to be exponents of organized crime, with concerns about cigarette smuggling," the release informed.