European Union police declared victory Thursday in a battle to break up a Greek-based gang that manufactured ‘tax-free’ cigarettes and smuggled them into Germany.
Raids have been going on for months, according to Siegfried Wittwer of the European Agency to Combat Fraud in Oldenburg, northern Germany.
He said a joint German-Greek operation that began in 2009 had led to 22 arrests in the two countries.
Two of the suspects are senior Greek police officers, he said.
Police discovered 40 storage sites in Germany for the cigarettes, which were sold in sports clubs in Western Europe.
The suspects are to face charges of criminal conspiracy, tax evasion and money laundering.
Two illegal cigarette factories in the Thessaloniki area of Greece were traced by police.
One had made more than 300 million cigarettes before it was closed down. The other was on a remote cattle farm.
Source: Deutsche Presse Agenteur
