Batch of Counterfeit Cigarettes Worth About $5 Million Destroyed in Ryazan

A large batch of counterfeit cigarettes worth about $5 million has been destroyed at an industrial landfill in Ryazan, Alexander Vorobyov, press secretary at the Head Directorate for Economic Crimes of the Federal Service for Economic and Tax Crimes of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs, told journalists. He said that the destroyed counterfeits belonged to a criminal group arrested in early 2003 as a result of a joint operation conducted by the Head Directorate for Economic Crimes and the Department for Economic Crimes of the Ryazan Region Department of Internal Affairs. The investigation found that the counterfeit cigarettes had been produced at the Shilovo Tobacco Factory, a municipal unitary enterprise, and the criminals started manufacturing the products without the agreement of rights holders in the summer of 2001. Among the fake cigarette brands produced at the Shilovo facilities were well-known trademarks like LM, Marlboro and Camel, said the spokesperson. The criminal group organized the illegal production of counterfeit cigarettes, shipment, transportation, storage, sale and delivery of the cigarettes to criminal wholesale buyers, raking in enormous profits in the process. The counterfeit products were meant to be trafficked to EU nations, including Italy, the U.K. and Germany. Since the beginning of 2004 officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs' departments for economic crimes involving the production and sales of raw and processed tobacco products have solved 7,673 crimes, filed 8, 342 reports on administrative violations, initiated 354 criminal cases, stopped illegal activities by six criminal groups and withdrawn over 12 million packs of cigarettes from illegal circulation, Vorobyov added.