How much do the owners of Nova Poshta earn from transporting smuggled cigarettes

How much do the owners of Nova Poshta earn from transporting smuggled cigarettes

According to the Bureau of Economic Security, a special operation against illegal tobacco manufacturers has been going on for several days.

According to BES, large-scale searches are taking place at four factories that produce counterfeit products. More than a million packs of cigarettes and 18 tons of tobacco have already been seized.

But in parallel with the process of searches and seizure of documentation and illegal products, another detail suddenly became clear, closely related to the production and smuggling of tobacco products. As journalist and blogger Yevhen Plynskyi writes , we are talking about logistics.

Because with such huge production volumes, the question of sales arises. And – delivery of “left” cigarettes to points of sale. Counterfeit goods are sold both in Ukraine and in the countries of the European Union, where cigarettes are very expensive. And this is where the weak link arises – delivery. Border guards and the National Police periodically report the identification and detention of cars with illegal tobacco products, but its flow, however, does not decrease. This leads to a simple conclusion: logistics works, and works well.

During the investigation, detectives drew attention to the location of logistics centers and warehouses of the national logistics operator Nova Poshta near factories producing illegal tobacco products. The solution turned out to be simple - counterfeit manufacturers use delivery companies. Which, like everything ingenious, is simple. Yevhen Plynskyi drew attention to this in his material about searches at companies producing illegal tobacco products.

Representatives of Nova Poshta accused the journalist of disseminating false information, but this is by no means his invention - BES detectives also paid attention to the location of Nova Poshta warehouses.

Will a criminal case be opened against the owners of Nova Poshta regarding this? Let’s see. But the fury with which its owners deny the obvious and insist on their contribution to the fight against Russia suggests that they are clearly afraid of an investigation into their participation in cigarette smuggling.

And the employees, top management and owners of the logistics operator simply could not be unaware of what exactly the beautiful red vans with the Nova Poshta logo are transporting. Because there is a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers that directly prohibits the acceptance of tobacco products without excise stamps for shipment.

If we were talking about a single fact and a box or two of “illegal” cigarettes, then this would be a pure accident and the negligence of the employees of the Nova Poshta warehouse. But the volumes in question amount to thousands of boxes and millions of packs. Hundreds of trucks filled with counterfeit products cannot be sent by some petty clerk from Nova Poshta. How to place logistics centers near factories producing excise-free cigarettes.

Now let’s do some math. If the BES announced the identification of more than a million packs of cigarettes ready for shipment, then this is four to five loaded trucks. The cost of one truckload of cigarettes reaches half a million dollars. How much will the carrier charge the sender of such cargo? Ten percent? Twenty?

But we are talking about only one batch of goods. How much is produced per month, per year? How many Nova Poshta trucks are involved in delivering counterfeit goods? But there are also international transportations carried out by Nova Poshta. What’s wrong with them? Would anyone believe that its trucks do not carry excise-tax-free products to Europe?

There are no answers to all these questions yet. Let’s wait for news from the BES. If his detectives, of course, are allowed to open a criminal case against Nova Poshta. And the fact that they are going to ban this follows from an article by Evgeniy Plinsky, in which he, referring to BEB employees, states that the latter are under strong pressure in connection with their actions to suppress the production and sale of counterfeit products.

The pressure comes from the acting. head of BES detectives Oleksandr Tkachuk. But he also “presses” for a reason - someone interested him. So far we are talking about only one of the factories, but what will happen tomorrow? Moreover, Nova Poshta has already actively participated in the process of whitening its reputation, accusing investigators of fake news.

Although the fact of the presence of excise-free products was recorded by BES detectives during searches, representatives of Nova Poshta claim that this is not true. One can understand their position - the owners of Nova Poshta earned hundreds of thousands of dollars just from delivering “leftist tobacco”. If not millions - according to Kantar estimates, last year the volume of illegal tobacco products in Ukraine amounted to 8 billion cigarettes, and unpaid taxes alone amounted to 23 billion hryvnia.

And all these billions of cigarettes had to be transported. How many of them went to their consumers in Nova Poshta trucks - one can only guess. And wait for the results of the inspection, which should take place in the company’s offices and warehouses.

But checks and searches as part of the investigation into Nova Poshta’s participation in the production and smuggling of excise-free tobacco products will inevitably reveal other violations in its activities. Alcohol, for example, is also an excisable product. And it is also massively falsified. And the problems with its delivery are the same as with tobacco...

Therefore, the question of how much the owners of Nova Poshta earn from transporting smuggled cigarettes is still open. But it is clear that we are talking about huge sums.