A verdict has been handed down in Semey for three members of a transnational group that illegally sold cigarettes without identification marks.
According to the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM), an organised criminal group (OCG) of eight individuals, including three foreign nationals, imported 9.3 million packs of counterfeit cigarettes from Kyrgyzstan using forged documents.
It is noted that the distribution took place across the Almaty, Zhambyl, Pavlodar and Turkestan regions. The criminals attempted to smuggle some of the cigarettes into Russia.
The entire volume of counterfeit products was seized from illegal circulation, with unpaid excise duties amounting to 2.6 billion tenge.
Law enforcement authorities seized 9 vehicles and the private home of the accused for confiscation.
Furthermore, during the investigation, the court granted requests for pre-trial confiscation of criminally obtained assets: $157,000 in cash and a VIP vehicle registration plate worth 840,000 tenge.
In the end, the court found D. Bekeshev, D. Satybaldiev and D. Sultanov guilty under Article 264, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Participation in a transnational organised group") and Article 214, Part 2, Paragraphs 1, 3 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Illegal entrepreneurship"), sentencing them to 8 years' imprisonment with confiscation of seized property worth 166 million tenge.
The other five members of the OCG have been placed on the international wanted list. One of them was detained on the territory of the Russian Federation, and a request for his extradition has been sent to the competent authorities.
It will be recalled that previously the Almaty Department of State Revenues (DSR) uncovered the illegal circulation of counterfeit tobacco products. Officials from the department discovered 18,603 packs of cigarettes without codes (identification marks) and with codes of an unspecified pattern. The total value of the illegal goods was estimated at nearly 17 million tenge.