In the first quarter of the year, Hungarians seized nearly 4 times more contraband than in all of the last year

A representative of the National Tax and Customs Service of Hungary Alexandra Sarkeszi told the newspaper Magyar Idők that on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, there are criminal gangs that divided the territory among themselves, but occasionally have conflicts over it. The National Tax and Customs Service takes serious measures to stop illegal activities. Recently, they managed to arrest another criminal gang.  During one of the arrests, it was found out that the South American drug cartel was also involved in cigarette smuggling across the Ukrainian-Hungarian border.

According to the National Tax and Customs Service, in the first four months of this year, they seized a record amount of contraband cigarettes: in the period of January – April, the National Tax and Customs Service seized more than 154 million smuggled cigarettes and nearly 100 tons of tobacco. The total value of goods exceeded 16 million euros. For comparison, in the last yearm they seized 43 million cigarettes.

The representative of the National Tax and Customs Service of Hungary added that the investigation, collection of evidence for one gang can take 9-12 months, but the place of the detained gang usually gets quickly taken by another one.