Smuggling of medicines and online sales: Khmelnytskyi police shut down criminal group. PHOTOS
Cyber police and investigators from the Khmelnytskyi region, under the procedural guidance of the Khmelnytskyi regional prosecutor's office, exposed and stopped the activities of a group of individuals who were smuggling foreign-made medicines into Ukraine.
The police established that the perpetrators were transporting medical products across the Ukrainian customs border without proper customs control, according to Censor.NET.
Details of the investigation
The suspects then sold the imported products online, using illegal labelling of one of the well-known brands.
The organiser of the illegal activity was a resident of the city of Khmelnytskyi. He involved seven other people in the scheme.
The members of the group had clearly defined roles: from organising delivery and keeping records to administering work processes, creating advertising content for web resources and making so-called "cold" calls to potential customers.
It was established that the suspects received postal items containing medicines from India and Turkey, after which they forwarded them to Khmelnytskyi for further sale.
To facilitate the activities of the criminal group, office space was rented in the regional centre, to which only participants in the scheme had access.
Law enforcement officers conducted 17 searches in the suspects' homes and in the rented office.
More than 360 packages of medicines, 40 types of biologically active supplements, premium cars, mobile phones, draft notes, and cash totaling about 100,000 hryvnias were seized.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated under the following parts:
- Smuggling of goods;
- Evasion of taxes and fees;
- Legalisation (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means;
- Illegal use of a trademark for goods and services, trade name, qualified indication of the origin of goods.
The most serious charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years' imprisonment.
