Police bust smoke smuggling gangs
Police working with Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) officials have uncovered two cigarette smuggling gangs whose actions are estimated to have cost the Greek state some 3 million euros in lost taxes.
One of the gangs was caught after 546,000 packs of cigarettes were intercepted at the port of Piraeus after being shipped from Port Said in Egypt. It was not clear if any arrests were made. Authorities acted following a tip-off from Europol.
The other gang shipped 450,000 packs of contraband smokes to Gytheio in the Peloponnese.
The cigarettes were brought ashore in a large dinghy from a ship that authorities did not managed to track down. Eight people were arrested. Four of them are ethnic Greeks from Georgia and Kazakhstan.
