Clandestine cigarette manufacturing workshop exposed in Vinnytsia region

Detectives from the Territorial Bureau of Economic Security in Chernivtsi region have disrupted an illegal cigarette production facility in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Vinnytsia region. This information was reported by the Bureau of Economic Security.

During the pre-trial investigation, two individuals were identified who had set up production and packaging lines for cigarettes on the premises of a defunct industrial enterprise. Both of them had previously worked at a tobacco factory, with one of them having a background in technology. They purchased decommissioned equipment from the same factory, hired three additional individuals, and organized a large-scale production of counterfeit cigarettes bearing the trademarks of well-known Ukrainian brands. The finished products were intended for export abroad for further distribution.

Bureau personnel conducted searches and seized equipment for manufacturing and packaging non-filtered cigarettes, a machine for affixing excise tax stamps, raw materials for tobacco products, unregistered firearms, and a Russian citizen's passport. The total value of the confiscated property amounts to over 2.6 million Ukrainian hryvnias.

The investigative process is ongoing, and authorities are working to establish the full extent of the individuals involved in the illegal activities, as well as uncover other illicit activities.