SLOVAK officials discovered a 700-metre tunnel complete with its own train used to smuggle goods and maybe people from neighbouring Ukraine into the European Union.
They seized some 13,100 boxes of cigarettes and arrested a pair of men caught in the act. This has never happened before. “It is as if this has been cut out of a movie from the Mexican-American border,” Peter Kažimír, the finance minister, said.
The bust came as a joint effort between tax and customs officials in an operation code named “Tax Cobra.” Robert Kaliňák, the interior minister, said officials detained two men loading a truck on July 18th, confiscating a tobacco haul that would have bypassed some €350,000 in excise tax. Police had to fire warning shots as the 59-year-old allegedringleader – who was renting the industrial property where the tunnel emerged — sought to flee the scene.
