A well-organized industry of tampering with and reusing tobacco packaging was uncovered in Thessaloniki by the inspectors of DEOS of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.
During a surprise inspection at a café-bar in a central part of the city, the inspectors found and seized:
- In the business office: Inside a locked metal trunk, transparent packages containing hookah tobacco mixtures, with a total weight of 20 kilos, which bore none of the required markings, while there was no invoice of lawful purchase or import for their possession.
- On the ground floor of the business: Branded tobacco boxes, which showed heavy wear and had multiple handwritten labels with various flavors. There, a hookah preparation area had been set up, where the ring refilled these boxes with the smuggled tobacco from the transparent bags.
- Tampering with tax stamp bands: In order to give the products an appearance of legality, the perpetrators had removed the tax stamp bands from older lawful packages and had reattached them artfully with adhesive tape (sellotape), so that they could use them repeatedly. In the same area, other empty packages intended for the same illegal use were also found.
Samples of the 20 kilos of smuggled tobacco were sent to the General State Laboratory of AADE for laboratory examination and the precise determination of their contents, while the assessment of the corresponding evaded duties and taxes is underway.