Ukrainian border patrol officers from the Dilove unit of Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service in Zakarpattya Oblast detained 14 smugglers in diving suits on March 25 as they were crossing the River Tisa, which forms part of the Romanian-Ukrainian border, the border guard service has reported.
According to the border guards, the divers were returning from Romania to Ukraine with 28 bags of contraband cigarettes they had failed to sell abroad.
“Early in the morning, border patrol detained a man wearing diving suit near the River Tisa. After several hours of searching, officers found and detained 13 more divers involved in smuggling. All of them were arrested on charges of illegally crossing the border and smuggling,” said the State Border Service press service.
Underwater smuggling seems to be very popular among Ukrainian contrabandists, with more than 25 divers having been detained next to the River Tisa by border guards since January.
“This method is dangerous, as the Tisa is a very unpredictable and strong mountain river,” Oleh Slobodyan, a State Border Guard Service spokesperson, told the Kyiv Post on March 27.
“Lots of ‘divers’ drown. In 2016 alone, 10 smugglers died in the Tisa. But they continue to transport cigarettes like that.”
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine officers arrest smuggling divers by the River Tisa on the Romanian Border on March 25. (http://dpsu.gov.ua)
Cigarette smuggling has become a major problem on Ukraine’s western border, with more than 1.3 million contraband packets being confiscated in 2016 alone.
The reason is that the prices of tobacco products are much higher in the European Union than in Ukraine. In Ukraine, a smuggler can buy a pack of cigarettes for Hr 30 (about one euro) and sell it abroad for five euros (more than Hr 90). In March alone more than 20,000 packets of contraband cigarettes were seized on Ukraine’s western borders.
The easy money is a draw to many Ukrainians, who have found numerous ways to smuggle cigarettes across the border. Zakarpattya Oblast Governor Hennadiy Moskal’s spokesperson, Yaroslav Galas, told the Kyiv Post on March 27 that smugglers usually transport large consignments of cigarettes by bribing contacts in the border guards service. Smaller consignments are transported through”zelyonky” – less well-guarded spots on border located deep in the Carpathian mountains and forests.
The River Tisa, which forms a natural border line between Romania and Ukraine in Mukacheve district of Zakarpattya Oblast, is one such spot.
“The divers’ detention happened a few days after the new head of Mukacheve District was appointed,” Galas said. “Our Border Guard Service have started a good practice for fighting corruption – they change the heads of border patrols every six months. And after every six months we have another mass arrest. After the old team with shady ties goes, the smugglers go too.”
Galas said it is very hard for Ukrainian authorities to fight tobacco smuggling not only because of corruption in the Border Guard Service, but also because so many locals are involved in the illicit trade.
“Many people here are involved in the process. They transport cigarettes by air and water mostly. It is quite simple, especially in summer, when the River Tisa becomes shallow.”
According to him, the smugglers know the river very well, and they use its current to transport the cargo from one location to another. They even use ropes swings to transport cigarettes across the river, he said.
