Customs stops mega-cigarette smuggling: 170,000 pieces confiscated!

Customs stops mega-cigarette smuggling: 170,000 pieces confiscated!

At the Vienna-Schwechat Airport, there was a historic smuggling process at the end of October: customs officials discovered a total of 170,000 cigarettes in eleven suitcases, 50 kilograms of shisha tobacco and 6,276 potency pills. "Such quantities have never been over in travel traffic," said customs team leader Roland Karner, who has been working at the airport since 1991, during a press conference. The shocking finds were secured on October 31, with a targeted control of three passengers who arrived from Cairo. This control was initiated by risk analyzes that had previously found suspicious activities.

smuggler in sight

In the intensive reviews, a 61-year-old Italian initially noticed, who was traveling with four suitcases that only contained cigarettes and hookah tobacco. While his two accomplices, a 30-year-old Frenchman and a 49-year-old, tried to avoid customs by wanting to have their suitcases stored for collection, they were also discovered. However, the experiments were unsuccessful, however, since the customs officers also found cigarettes and other forbidden goods in their luggage. Financial criminal proceedings were initiated against the three smugglers, each of which can result in fines of up to 80,000 euros, as OE24.at reported.

Finance Minister Gunter Mayr praised the efficiency of customs: "If the right ones are pulled out of millions of suitcases, this shows how professionally there is a job here." The results show that the risk analyzes of customs officials work and help to prevent illegal trade, which not only protects the state but also correct companies, such as