The “furniture” was 3.2 million cigarettes

Published 5 December 2024 at 14.21

Domestic. A Ukrainian truck driver living in Lithuania is now being prosecuted after 3.2 million cigarettes were seized in Karlshamn.

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The driver is being prosecuted at the Karlskrona district court for serious illegal movement of goods subject to excise duty.

It was a customs officer who, during a routine check in Stillerydshamnen on 22 September, discovered eight suspicious pallets wrapped in white plastic.

According to the shipping documents, the cargo would consist of furniture. But after one of the pallets was opened, the real contents were revealed – contraband cigarettes.

A total of 3.2 million cigarettes were found, which corresponds to almost six million kroner in evaded tax.

The cigarettes are suspected to be a part of organized crime and intended to reach Swedish stores.

– It is an unusually large case, says Erik Friberg, Erik Friberg, head of the Swedish Customs Service's crime unit south.

– The trend is that both smoking and our cigarette seizures have decreased over a longer period of time, but this case shows that cigarette smuggling is still large and profitable. It is about organized crime, and about goods that easily find their way into ordinary stores.

The driver risks up to four years in prison if he is convicted.