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Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-09-01
CONTENTS
[01] 80 tonnes of tobacco, of which 4.5 million contraband cigarettes
could have been made, has been seized by police
[01] 80 tonnes of tobacco, of which 4.5 million contraband cigarettes
could have been made, has been seized by police
About 20 people, most probably immigrants from eastern European
countries, lived locked up in a basement in Thessaloniki, northern
Greece and worked for the production and packaging of millions of
packets of cigarettes which were trafficked in Greece and abroad. It is
the biggest network of the trafficking and prodiction of contraband
cigarettes which has been disrupted in Greece.
Thessaloniki police have already arrested one man aged 35 and are
seeking his brother and three other persons which are involved in the
network in which is estimated that a further ten people are
implicated.
In investigations which police made in warehouses in Kavalari, Aghios
Athanasios and Kalohori, 80 tonnes of tobacco, of which 4.5 million
cigarettes would have been produced, were found.
The tobacco had been imported, and used for the creation of cigarette
packets labeled with two well known tobacco companies' brand and were
distributed throughout Greece but also abroad.
According to Thessaloniki Security Police Chief Stergios Apostolidis,
the tobacco workshop was at Aghios Athanasios and "the personnel,
probably from countries of the former Soviet Union, numbered abour 20
people and were locked up, producing large quantities of cigarettes."
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