Truck Drivers Detained For Smuggling Cigarettes Via U.S. Diplomatic Cargo

KIEV, Ukraine -- The international delivery services used by the United States Embassy in Ukraine may not be as secure as one would expect.


Last month, Ukrainian customs officers discovered forty cartons of contraband cigarettes in a truck carrying a load of U.S. diplomatic cargo, but officials on both sides dismiss any suggestion of smuggling by embassy personnel.

The contraband cargo, which was seized at the Polish-Ukrainian border, was apparently loaded on the truck by the drivers.

Vitaly Kuchman, chief of the Yagodin Custom’s Post in Ukraine’s western Volyn Region, said the cigarettes were being smuggled by the truck’s two drivers.

The incident was in no way “the fault of the embassy,” he told the Post. The 18-wheeler Volvo truck didn’t belong to the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, he added.

According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, diplomatic shipments cannot be inspected by customs officials unless tampering is suspected. In this case, according to Kuchman, the drivers had broken the seal on the shipment and placed the cigarettes among the rest of the legitimate diplomatic shipment, which consisted of embassy personnel’s personnel effects.

The cigarettes, all L&M brand, were not listed anywhere on the truck’s inventory and were confiscated by border officials.

L&M brand cigarettes sell at just over 50 cents per pack in Ukraine but can be resold at prices several fold higher in European countries, where taxations on tobacco products is significantly higher.

While much larger shipments of contraband cigarettes have been seized at Ukrainian borders, smuggling 400 packs of L&M cigarettes could earn the drivers $1,000 or more in extra cash.

According to news reports, the truck was carrying the goods from Ukraine to Germany. Cigarettes are generally two to threefold more expensive in neighboring Poland and even more expensive further west.

Representatives of the press office at the U.S. Embassy Kyiv refused to comment on the specifics of the shipment or its seizure.

“We’re aware of the incident but because it was border control who discovered it, we’re referring everyone to their offices,” said Ryan Koch, assistant to the information officer at the embassy.

Koch said this was the first he had ever heard of such an incident occurring.

U.S. diplomats’ personal effects and furniture are usually shipped using contractors, who are “awarded their contracts based on past performance and willingness to meet security requirements, among other factors,” Koch told the Post.

The two Ukrainian suspects are currently awaiting trial. They are expected to face charges of smuggling and tampering with diplomatic cargo.

Source: Kyiv Post