Russky Kurier
October 12, 2004

A Lithuanian citizen is wanted by the Directorate of Internal Affairs of the Ryazan region and the Head Directorate for Economic Crimes of the Federal Service for Economic and Tax Crimes of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs for organizing large-scale illicit production of tobacco products bearing well-known trademarks.

According to law enforcement agencies, Egidus Stuikis, 39, started producing counterfeit cigarettes at the Shilovo Tobacco Factory, former producer of the well-known Belomor cigarettes, in the Ryazan region in early 2001. Not only did the criminal group produce fake cigarettes, it also smuggled them to EU countries. The offenders did not sell their products in Russia as they thought it was unprofitable. Such countries as Germany, Sweden, Finland and Hungary, however, were flooded with the Ryazan fakes.

According to police, the goods were transported to Europe by truck almost on a daily basis. In order to disguise themselves, the criminals under-loaded approximately the last five meters of truck trailers and recorded in shipping documents that the space was filled with other cargos (such as vegetables or cardboard).

According to specialists, a total of 20 kinds of cigarettes were produced at the Ryazan region facility. Their contents did not differ — the frauds mixed cheap tobacco with hay, which made the cost of production of a pack of Russian Marlboro or West cigarettes as low as 5 cents, while the average price of a pack in Europe was 5 to 6 euros. The officers of the Head Directorate for Economic Crimes did not name figures for the criminals' profits, saying only that they were enormous.

When the police shut down the production in 2003, a batch of cigarettes worth almost $5 million was waiting to be shipped to EU countries.

This past Thursday all these counterfeit cigarettes were destroyed. Local police officers managed to arrest almost all the people involved in this business, although the actual organizer of the production, Egidus Stuikis, got away from the police. According to the police, he might be hiding out in the Moscow region. Anyone who has any information about his whereabouts is welcome to call (0912) 29-93-71, 29-95-27 or 02.