In a warehouse in the Gelderland village of Stroe, an illegal cigarette factory was discovered on Wednesday. Twelve men were arrested during a raid by a team from customs and the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD).
Upon entering, the team found a factory fully equipped with a production line for making cigarettes. There were also sleeping and living areas for the workers present. According to the FIOD, this indicates “long-term and large-scale production.”
In the warehouse, approximately 320,000 cigarettes, 45,000 kilos of tobacco, and a large quantity of materials for the production of cigarettes were seized. Everything has been removed for destruction.
The FIOD estimates that the State would have missed out on approximately 20 million euros in excise revenue if the cigarettes had entered the Dutch market.