Large Batch of Counterfeit Cigarettes Worth Some $5 Million Destroyed in Ryazan

A large batch of counterfeit cigarettes worth about $5 million has been destroyed in Ryazan. Counterfeit cigarettes were dumped into a pit at an industrial landfill and driven over by bulldozers and graders, after which the pit was backfilled.

The destroyed batch of counterfeit products is the largest in the past 10 years, said 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.

"The counterfeits destroyed belonged to a criminal group arrested in early 2003 as the 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," said Vorobyov. According to him, an investigation revealed that the counterfeit cigarettes had been produced at the Shilovo Tobacco Factory. It was also found that the criminals had started manufacturing the products without rights holders' authorization in the summer of 2001. The factory produced cigarettes under well-known trademarks. "Foreign rights holders estimate the cost of the destroyed batch at $5 million," said the press secretary. Sergei Kabashov, head of the Department for Economic Crimes of the Ryazan Region Department of Internal Affairs, said that the criminal group included 12 people. "The criminals organized the illegal production of counterfeit cigarettes, shipment, transportation, storage, sale and illicit delivery to criminal wholesale buyers, raking in enormous profits in the process," Kabashov said. He explained that the cost of producing a pack of cigarettes is 18-30 cents (about 5.3-8.7 rubles), while the retail price abroad of a pack ranges from $5 to $10 dollars. The cigarettes were transported in trucks. The criminals concealed their actions by not completely filling truck trailers, leaving about 5 meters that were entered into shipping documents as being filled with hay or other goods, according to RIA Novosti. The investigation found that the fake cigarettes were meant to be trafficked in large quantities outside Russia. Counterfeit products of well-known trademarks produced in the Ryazan region were transported via Moscow to Smolensk, Bryansk, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and subsequently exported through Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to Germany, Italy, the U.K., Denmark and several other E.U. countries, said a representative of the Head Directorate for Economic Crimes. He added that the cigarettes seized would occupy as many as six railroad cars; a total of approximately 4,500 boxes of counterfeit cigarettes have been destroyed. Since the beginning of 2004 officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' departments for economic crimes involving production and sale of raw and processed tobacco products have solved 7,673 crimes, filed 8,342 reports on administrative violations, initiated 354 criminal cases, stopped the illegal activities of six criminal groups and withdrawn over 12 million packs of cigarettes from illegal circulation, Vorobyov said.