In the Irkutsk region, three criminal cases were opened on the fact of timber smuggling to China and Uzbekistan. This is reported by the Irkutsk customs.
“The criminal group acted as part of two Russian women, residents of Krasnoyarsk and the Irkutsk region, and a man, a citizen of Uzbekistan. <…> In order to legalize the purchase of timber on the domestic market, the suspects used fictitious contracts for the sale of goods during customs clearance, ”the ministry said in a statement.
In total, three episodes of illegal activity were identified. In the period from the end of 2017 to the middle of 2020, 1.3 thousand cubic meters of lumber worth 8.6 million rubles were exported abroad. Three criminal cases were initiated under Part 3 of Art. 226.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, writes news agency IrkutskMedia.
Members of the organized crime group are in custody and under house arrest. The investigation is ongoing.
In December, it was reported that the Izhevsk entrepreneur was accused of illegally selling timber abroad for an amount exceeding 1.4 billion rubles. This is twice the income from the operation of the entire timber processing complex of Udmurtia, which was planned to be received in the first three months of 2022.
