The prosecutor's office, together with law enforcement agencies, has shut down an illegal network for the sale of electronic cigarettes that operated outside of tax and customs control and caused damage to the state budget.

According to the investigation, a group of eight individuals — residents of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region — established a large-scale scheme for the illegal sale of electronic cigarettes. The participants in the scheme created online stores through which they sold prohibited disposable pod systems. It has been preliminarily established that these electronic devices were illegally imported into Ukraine from China.

Counterfeit goods were stored in the village of Podvirky in the Kharkiv district - in non-residential buildings and warehouses. The group members acted with clearly defined roles: some took orders and coordinated operations, while others were responsible for packaging and shipping the goods by mail. The profits obtained from illegal activities were distributed in predetermined shares.

Within the framework of the criminal proceedings, law enforcement conducted a series of authorized searches at the homes of the organizers, their accomplices, as well as at the warehouses of the online stores.

Seized:

​•​nearly 18 thousand electronic smoking devices worth almost 9 million UAH;

​•​over 6 thousand units of nicotine-containing liquid for refilling cigarettes;

​•​invoices, reports, rough accounting records, computer equipment;

​•​cash: 7 thousand US dollars, 1,200 euros, and nearly 20 thousand hryvnias in cash.

Currently, the issue of appointing necessary expert examinations and imposing a seizure on the confiscated property is being resolved.

Under the procedural guidance of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, a pre-trial investigation is ongoing regarding the illegal storage for the purpose of sale and sale of illegally manufactured excise goods (part 1 of Article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); legalization (laundering) of funds obtained by criminal means (part 1 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); and smuggling of excise goods committed by a group of individuals in a large amount (part 2 of Article 201-4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by investigators of the SV VP No. 2 of the Kharkiv District Police Department No. 1 of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kharkiv region, with operational support from the staff of the main operational search department of the 4th border detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty by a court verdict.