The Border Service Department of the KNBS in the Zhambyl Region has prevented the illegal import of a large batch of cigarettes into Kazakhstan.
According to the press service of the department, an attempt was made to smuggle 170,000 packs of cigarettes across the state border without accompanying documents, disguised as electrical products.
Preliminary estimates place the value of the seized goods at over 50 million tenge. The confiscated cargo has been handed over to the relevant authority for further investigation.
It is worth recalling that earlier it was reported that due to cigarette smuggling in 2023, the state budget of Kazakhstan lost approximately 33 billion tenge.
In September 2024, officers of the AFM in the Mangystau Region identified a batch of smuggled cigarettes brought in from Turkmenistan, bypassing the customs control zone. The value of the confiscated 6.5 million packs of cigarettes was estimated at nearly 1.5 billion tenge.
Later, border guards thwarted attempts to illegally import cigarettes on the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border. The tobacco products were discovered in a refrigerator truck which, according to accompanying documents, was supposed to contain Bulgarian peppers. During the inspection, more than 180,000 packs of undeclared cigarettes of the brands «Oris», «Parliament» and «Zumerret» were seized.
In October, in the Aktobe Region, authorities prevented the illegal export of a large batch of cigarettes from Kazakhstan through the «Zhaisan» vehicle checkpoint. On that occasion, over 71,000 packs were attempted to be taken out without accompanying documents, hidden under boxes of vegetables.
In December, in the Mangystau Region at the «Morport» customs post, during an inspection of a container from Iran, a large batch of smuggled Oris cigarettes was identified. The perpetrators attempted to bring in over 226,000 packs worth 85.9 million tenge disguised as rubbish bins.