ATHENS: The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) worked closely with Greek and Cypriot authorities to track the shipment and seize more than 33 million cigarettes in Greece between December 2015 and January 2016.
“Once again, the numbers show the excellent work and perseverance of our investigators, as well as the undeniable importance of European cooperation in this field,” OLAF Director- General Giovanni Kessler was quoted by New Europe here the other day.
“OLAF brings real added value by providing its operational partners with key information on the movement of such goods and these efforts are showing clear results,” he added.
All the cigarettes seized in these operations were so-called “cheap-whites”.
They were mostly Richman, Royal, RGD and Jim, although new brands have also surfaced, such as the Vietnamese brand Aroma.
The Aegean Sea was the target of two of OLAF’s biggest operations this season.
Thanks to the close cooperation with the Greek General Secretariat against corruption (AFCOS Greece), Greek and Cypriot customs, 33 million cigarettes, were seized at the end of January.
An additional seizure of almost 21 million cigarettes had already taken place at the Port of Piraeus, bringing the total number of seized cigarettes in Greece in the course of these 2 recent investigations to over 55 million.
