The smuggled cigarettes were valued at UAH 36 thousand, and the car at ten times that amount (UAH 358 thousand).
Border guards have a list of cars that are most often used by citizens of neighboring countries to smuggle contraband across the border. Of course, they won’t take any chances with expensive cars, because if they try to smuggle goods across the border, the car is confiscated.
The 2008 Mercedes-Benz E-Class must have been at risk, because the car is not young and, in this case, it was quite trampled. On July 28, a 62-year-old Ukrainian citizen tried to cross the Vylok checkpoint to Hungary in such a car. However, the border guards suspected that this Mercedes might be carrying smuggled goods and sent it for additional in-depth investigation. As it turned out, it was not in vain. The driver or his accomplices packed as many as 500 packs of cigarettes, which are much more expensive abroad than in Ukraine, under the bumper. Customs officers counted “goods” worth 36 thousand hryvnias.
The cigarettes were confiscated, as was the car. So the attempt to “make money” on smuggling resulted in the loss of a car that was ten times more expensive.
