North-West customs officers have stopped the activities of an organized crime group importing cars from abroad using forged documents
Published: April 27, 2024 11:14 AM
Officers of the North-West Operational Customs Office have stopped the activities of a criminal group importing cars from abroad using forged documents from EAEU countries. The fraudsters were detected when importing three Mercedes-Benz cars from Abkhazia. The amount of evasion of customs payments amounted to 8 million rubles
Operatives found that the attackers declared to the customs authorities information about the cars and their registration in Belarus. When checking the information, it turned out that the cars were bought in Abkhazia and imported into Russia under false documents. In this way, the fraudsters tried to avoid paying payments
The investigation led law enforcers to the Moscow region, where a workshop with printing and embossing equipment was found in a warehouse. It was used to produce fake documents and plastic cards – vehicle registration certificates of Armenian and Kazakhstani origin. Also seized were electronic data carriers with blank documents – vehicle registration certificates of the samples of the EAEU member states, invoices, commission agreements, samples of letters from the customs authorities of the EAEU member states
The suspects have been questioned. Two Mercedes-Benz S-class and one Mercedes-Benz E-class cars were seized
The North-West Operational Customs Service initiated proceedings under paragraph “a”, part 2, article 194 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (evasion of customs payments, committed on a large scale by a group of persons by prior conspiracy)
The investigation is currently ongoing and other episodes of illegal importation of cars are being established