Ukrainian ship smuggled out from Crimea
The Ukrainian ship Parallel, being in distress in the Black Sea on 19 November 2018, shipped 10 thousand boxes of smuggled cigarettes from Crimea to Bulgaria.
The journalist Yuriy Butusov wrote that on Facebook.
As he reports, during the yesterday’s accident, the ship Parallel unhooked a towed dump lighter UDP-DM-2309, which belonged to PJSC Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company. The same evening, the lighter went aground near Tairovo village in the Odessa region. During its inspection, the border guards found 10 thousand boxes of smuggled cigarettes produced in Crimea; that meant 5 million packs of cigarettes.
«In July 2018, this lighter had already been detained for smuggling cigarettes, and then over 1 million packs of cigarettes were loaded onto it in Nikolaev’s port. However, the arrest was soon quietly and behind the scenes lifted by the court. The lighter continued to work unchallenged. The Parallel tugboat crew was well aware of carrying smuggling. The Parallel left Kherson’s port and turned off the transponder, which allows determining a ship’s location. In the sea the Parallel clearly received smuggled cargo. Though the storm interrupted another operation,» noticed Butusov.
As to Cenzor.Net, illegal trafficking is covered by one of the famous Odessa bandits Alexander Kisil, known as Kissel. Kisil supplies mainly via sea transport using agencies involved in trafficking, in particular, PJSC Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company. In some cases, small consignments of cigarettes are exported through Ukraine’s territory across the western border.
«Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are aware of Kisil’s and his gang’s activities. However, the chaos in the law enforcement system has reached such a scale that resisting the well-organized mafia being greatly sponsored by the Russian special services and able to eliminate any solo-protester is impossible in the state».
Butusov added that Ukraine was a transit country for transferring expensive trafficking, especially cigarettes, to the European Union.
«Russian special services have for many years been constructing a checking circuit for the tobacco market. The Russians transferred the Ukrainian market under the trading house Megapolis’s control. Meanwhile, the Russian cigarettes illegal traffic to the EU was handed by the Kremlin to the pro-Russian and Kremlin-controlled Ukrainian mafia».
On November 19, the State Border Service of Ukraine reported that at about 9.30 am the border monitoring posts and the maritime rescue center received a SOS signal from the Ukrainian tugboat Parallel, which was on the way to Skadovsk. The Parallel suffered a distress nearby the Tendrovsky spit about 9 miles from the coastline. The crew found damage in the hull, causing water to enter the engine compartment. The tugboat crew was been picked up by an overseas vessel passing nearby, until the rescuers arrived. Arriving to accident scene, the marine security boat took on board a crew of 4 people. All members of the ship’s command were sent to Ochakov port in the Nikolaev region.
