Officers of the Complex Investigations Directorate of the National Investigation Inspectorate (INI), together with prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS), raided a clandestine cigarette factory in Rezina district, where cigarettes worth millions with counterfeit excise stamps were seized, the General Inspectorate of Police (IGP) announced.

“The criminal case concerns the activity from 2022-2023 of a criminal group specializing in the illegal manufacture, storage and transportation of cigarettes. Thus, from the searched warehouse were seized and sealed for further investigation: more than one million cigarettes without excise stamps, more than two million cigarettes without documents of origin, as well as more than five million cigarettes with Moldovan excise stamps.

Also, more than half a million cigarettes with fake excise stamps, estimated at 600,000 lei, and about two million fake excise stamps were seized near the clandestine cigarette production line,” police said.

At the same time, according to law enforcement officers, raw materials were also seized, estimated at five million lei, for which no provenance documents were presented.

“Regarding the activity of illegal transportation of cigarettes by the persons concerned, on February 22 on the Orhei-Rezina route, law enforcement officers stopped a minibus carrying 750,000 cigarettes with fake excise stamps. These, as well as the minibus, were seized as criminal assets in the criminal case,” the police also announce.

Investigations are ongoing, during which time the parties are invoking the presumption of innocence, according to the law.