Overview
- Customs investigators led coordinated searches between May 20 and 22 that targeted 13 warehouses and apartments across North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate and uncovered a converted factory in Staudt used to make illegal cigarettes.
- Officers seized nearly 20 million untaxed cigarettes, more than 16 tonnes of loose tobacco, production materials, around €75,000 in cash and numerous smartphones and electronic records.
- Four men of Romanian and Moldovan nationality were arrested during the May operation and ordered held in pretrial detention by the Amtsgericht Bielefeld on charges linked to manufacturing and selling untaxed cigarettes.
- Investigators say the Staudt site was heavily modified with soundproofing and video surveillance and that at least eleven workers were kept confined inside under poor conditions to hide the operation.
- Probes and forensic analysis of seized devices are ongoing and prosecutors estimate the network may have trafficked up to about 80 million cigarettes nationwide, causing roughly €5.4 million in lost tax revenue and likely prompting further arrests and prosecutions.