Czech police catch group of cigarette smugglers

Plzen, West Bohemia, Aug 1 (CTK) - The Czech police caught two Czech, a Polish and a Ukrainian man who smuggled cigarettes produced in Russia and the case is connected with a recently uncovered 700-metre tunnel under the border between Ukraine and Slovakia, the Czech customs police told CTK Wednesday.

The four men were arrested last week at night in Plzen with 84,000 cigarettes.

The cigarettes were smuggled though the tunnel and then hidden in a cache in the floor of a Chrysler Voyager car that transported them to the Czech Republic, Plzen customs police spokeswoman Jitka Blahutova said.

From Plzen, the untaxed cigarettes would be further distributed, she said.

"Cigarette smuggling from Eastern countries has been on the increase in the recent years when the prices of cigarettes have been going up," Blahutova said.

Czech customs police reveal smuggled cigarettes when checking markets and vehicles driving on roads.

Slovak police president Tibor Gaspar announced two weeks ago that the police revealed a tunnel beneath the Slovak-Ukrainian border that smugglers were using for illegal transport of goods for at least one year.

The tunnel was built professionally with the use of mining technology. It is six metres underground, has a diameter of one metre and is equipped with rails. It leads beneath the Slovak border zone and comes to the surface in a business complex.

The closely-watched Slovak-Ukrainian border is the external border of the Schengen area.