Shadow business worth millions of hryvnias: a large-scale sale of illegal vapes and tobacco was stopped in the Bucha district

 A large-scale sale of electronic cigarettes, refill liquids, and various tobacco products without excise marking was organized by a group of persons in the Bucha district. Detectives of the Territorial Office of the ESBU in the Kyiv region stopped the illegal activity and seized products and property worth over 2 million UAH.

The organizers of the illegal business launched an activity to sell excisable products of doubtful origin without proper marking and without paying taxes to the state budget. The goods were distributed through specialized retail outlets and remote communication channels.

In the course of investigative actions, detectives of the Bureau seized significant volumes of counterfeit goods prepared for sale, namely over 5 thousand POD systems and modern vaping devices, about 4,000 containers with nicotine-containing liquids, as well as hundreds of packs of hookah tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, sticks, and snus.

In addition, ESBU detectives seized computer equipment, mobile phones, cash reports of financial and economic documentation confirming the scale of the transactions, and a vehicle.

The estimated value of the seized assets exceeds 2 million UAH.

The pretrial investigation is ongoing under Article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal storage, sale, or transportation with the purpose of sale of excisable goods).

Authorities are establishing the full circle of persons involved in the illegal activity, as well as the origin of the counterfeit products.

Operational support is carried out by employees of the Department of Strategic Investigations in the Kyiv region of the DSI of the National Police. Procedural guidance is carried out by prosecutors of the Kyiv Regional Prosecutor's Office.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in accordance with the law and established by a court verdict.