Representatives of the tax police have seized 1,416 tonnes of spirit products worth over Hr 360 million conducing the special operation to prevent the operations on the shadow spirit market, First Deputy Head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine Serhiy Bilan wrote on his Facebook page.
He said that the distilleries are operating in Vinnytsia, Sumy, Ternopil and Kharkiv regions.
“In the process of recording information about the operations of clandestine workshops producing alcoholic beverages or falsified alcohol, we often record the fact of obtaining an unaccounted-for alcohol manufactured at the facilities of distilleries. It is later used by criminals as raw material for the illegal production of vodka. That is why it’s important for us to track down all the ways of supply or illegal production of alcohol,” Bilan wrote.
He said that the raids are carried out as part of an investigation into a number of criminal proceedings under several articles of the Criminal Code, including those launched against former managers of the state-owned enterprise Ukrspyrt.
Within the first phase of the large-scale special operation, 41 distilleries were raided. Then, at 15 ditilleries in total, about 980 tonnes of alcohol-containing liquid worth nearly Hr 180 million were seized.
After that, following the chain of deliveries in 15 regions, 23,310 liters of bottled vodka worth over Hr 3 million were seized, without excise duty stamps, or with stamps with wrong excise rates.
“Thus, taking into account yesterday’s raids during this special operation, alcohol-containing liquids worth over Hr 540 million have already been seized from illegal turnover, and we will continue this work,” Bilan said.
