Shameless diplomatic smuggling. First comments.

We already reported that on Saturday evening, at the checkpoint "Luzhanka" on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, border guards stopped an attempted smuggling of large quantity of cigarettes which offenders tried to take out of Ukraine under the guise of diplomatic cargo.

A minibus with Slovak registration driven by a citizen of Ukraine arrived at the checkpoint to leave Ukraine. During the border and customs control, the driver was behaving defiantly and refused to provide the vehicle for in-depth inspe.  Then the man turned the vehicle around and tried to escape from the police. Border guards detained the vehicle at the barrier and returned it back for inspection using a sniffer dog. The dog trained to detect tobacco gave a signal that cigarettes might be being transported in the vehicle.

– The driver of the minibus "Volkswagen Transporter" with diplomatic license plates (the vehicle belongs to the Embassy of Ukraine in Slovakia), a resident of Kyiv Serhiy Lischyshyn, who is the spouse of the First Secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine in Slovakia O.Lischyshyn, tried to move abroad more than 5,500 cartons of cigarettes – the head of the Regional State Administration Hennadiy Moskal says. – He presented the customs officers and border guards a diplomatic passport and a letter signed by his wife, according to which, from 21 to 24 of May, the minibus is carrying diplomatic cargo and shall not be subject to control! When customs officers, suspecting the presence of contraband (a sniffer dog gave a signal), insisted on the inspection, S.Lischyshyn raised a scandal, threatened to call the consul, etc. The customs officers contacted the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and after obtaining permission for inspection of the minibus, found 5,685 cartons of cigarettes worth 620,000 UAH. The cigarettes and the van were seized.

H. Moskal appealed to the management of the Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine and the State Fiscal Service with a request to reward the employees who showed integrity and prevented smuggling under the guise of diplomatic cargo.