A gang that had flooded the southern suburbs of Attica with thousands fell into the hands of the Police contraband cigarettes and smoke.
The authorities proceeded to arrest three people who were trafficking thousands of contraband cigarettes and tobacco in the southern suburbs. Specifically, a 29-year-old, a 31-year-old and a 54-year-old woman were arrested at noon on Wednesday (11/12/2024), as members of a criminal organization, accused of violating the National Customs Code.
According to ELAS, the gang’s activity began in July, while the 31-year-old and sometimes the 29-year-old were selling illegal tobacco products mainly in the afternoon and evening hours, after telephone communication with the recipients. In order to make it difficult to trace them they avoided making frequent distributions and limited them to weekly distributions.
The tobacco products were delivered to the homes of the “customers” or to another pre-agreed point, while the repayment was made either by paying the sums of money into the defendants’ bank accounts, or by delivering them at the time of receipt of the products, or by depositing the amount in safe spot.
In addition, the contraband tobacco products were also traded through the convenience store of the 54-year-old woman, which procured them from the above defendants.
The 31-year-old was found in his car in Koropi and in his possession were found and confiscated 560 packs of cigarettes and 62 packs of tobacco that did not have the indicative consumption tax tape, for the purpose of trafficking, 2 mobile phones, handwritten notes and the sum of 115 euros.
In house searches, the following were found and confiscated:
-28,820 packs of cigarettes, without the indicative consumption tax strip,
-1,118 tobacco packages, without the indicative consumption tax strip,
– the amount of money of 3,800 euros
-and handwritten notes.
As noted by ELAS, the missing duties and taxes from the seized tobacco products amount to the sum of 168,405.73 euros, as determined by the competent Service.
Those arrested were taken to the Criminal Prosecutor of Athens.