Counterfeit nicotine products worth over 12 million hryvnias were seized in the capital.

Another scheme for selling counterfeit e-cigarettes and nicotine-containing products has been uncovered in Kyiv. E-liquids, nicotine pouches, electronic smoking devices, and other products were sold to the public with counterfeit excise stamps or without any at all.

The National Police of Ukraine reported this.

According to investigators, 27 searches were conducted, during which tens of thousands of counterfeit goods, computer equipment, mobile phones, and cash were seized. The value of the seized goods at black market prices is approximately 12.3 million hryvnias.

Operatives from the National Police’s Strategic Investigations Department in Kyiv, together with detectives from the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB), documented a scheme for the illegal trafficking of counterfeit nicotine-containing products through a network of stores and kiosks in the capital.

To cover up illegal activities, they used controlled fictitious enterprises through which deliveries and payments for counterfeit products were made.

The investigation established that counterfeit excise tax stamps were applied to finished products.

This was an imitation of the original excise stamps, which were not recorded in state registers.

Some goods were sold without any excise stamps.

The issue of seizing the confiscated property is being decided and the investigation continues to identify all those involved in the criminal scheme.

The pre-trial investigation continues under Article 204 (illegal manufacture, storage, sale, or transportation for the purpose of sale of excisable goods) and Article 209 (legalization (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

Previously, Pryamyi reported that law enforcement in Zaporizhzhia uncovered a scheme to create fictitious disability status for conscripts and referred the case to court regarding the illegal enrollment of men in graduate school to obtain a deferment from military service. According to investigators, the defendants could have earned over 250 million hryvnias through these two schemes.

Also in Vinnytsia, law enforcement officers detained a 25-year-old man after making a false report of an intention to blow up a bank on Zamostenska Street. According to police, the man was intoxicated and claimed he wanted a ride home.

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