Operation “Excise”: in Bukovina police exposed a criminal group in the manufacture and sale of counterfeit alcohol
Measures to expose offenders took place in several stages. According to the results of the investigative actions, the organizer and members of the group were established, as well as channels for the sale of counterfeit products.
Operatives of the Directorate of Strategic Investigations in the Chernivtsi region together with the investigators of the regional police established that the activities were organized by local residents. They were engaged in the manufacture and marketing of vodka products in glass and paper containers of the type “Bag in Box”. During the sale of products, logos of well-known Ukrainian manufacturers and counterfeit stamps of excise tax of Ukraine were used.
Last month, police conducted 20 searches of the places of residence of members of the group and in the premises where “alcohol” was manufactured and stored. Then they seized 5 tons of alcohol, 1.5 tons of finished alcohol products, more than 850 bottles of vodka of various brands for a total amount of more than a million hryvnias.
During the operational measures, law enforcement officers established other storage locations for components for the manufacture of counterfeit products. Therefore, on February 21, they conducted a search and seized from illegal circulation 2 tons of alcohol in the amount of 200 thousand hryvnias.
Pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings is carried out under Part 1 of Art. 204 (illegal manufacture, storage, sale or transportation for the purpose of marketing excisable goods) and Part 1 of Art. 199 (manufacture, storage, acquisition, transportation, shipment, importation into Ukraine for use in the sale of goods, marketing the sale or sale of counterfeit money, state securities, state lottery tickets, excise tax stamps or holographic protective elements) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
For the crime, men may face punishment - imprisonment for a term of three to seven years. Procedural guidance in criminal proceedings is carried out by the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor's Office.
Department of Strategic Investigations
National Police of Ukraine
