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Greece

Over 90 Million Illegal Cigarettes on Ferry Confiscated in Megara

Over 90 million illegal cigarettes were confiscated by the Coast Guard on a ferry in the Pachi area of Megara, west of Athens, Greece, on Saturday morning, and seven crew members of Ukrainian nationality arrested. Authorities said it is the...

Illegal cigarettes confiscated in Piraeus

Narcotics squad officers yesterday seized 3-million euros’ worth of contraband cigarettes at the port of Piraeus. The confiscated cugarettes were approximately 22.359.000 pieces. Investigators discovered nearly 1,200 packets of cigarettes in two shipment boxes labeled as containing office supplies, which...

Black-Market Cigarettes Cost Greece €600Μ

Around 4.6 billion contraband cigarettes are sold in Greece every year costing the state €600 million ($741 million) in lost taxes. The claim was made at a conference involving Transparency International, the General Secretariat on Corruption, Europol, the Economic Crime...

Police Raid Illegal Cigarette Manufacturing Facilities Near Athens

Greek police seized 70 tonnes of smuggled tobacco and 8.8 million cigarette packets at two illegal tobacco manufacturing facilities in Aspropyrgos, west of Athens. A total of 40 people are thought to be involved in the racket. Police believe that they...

Financial Crisis in Greece Continues to Drive Consumers to Illegal Tobacco Products

With a steady increase of taxes on cigarettes, the state has fallen short of cashing in as the market share of illegal tobacco products has doubled over the past six years going from 10.1 percent in 2011 to 20...

Contraband Cigarettes Cost Greece up to €1 Billion per Year

As no Greek government has managed so far to banish smoking in public places, the State is losing close to 1 billion euros every year from the sale of contraband tobacco and cigarettes. Tax raises and special levies on cigarettes...

Increasing Cigarette Tax Driving Consumers to Illegal Tobacco Market

According to sources, the Greek state has missed out on an opportunity to reap around 800 million euros in tax revenues due to tax hikes on cigarettes in 2016, as consumers turn to illegal tobacco markets. The data shows that...

730-Million-Euro Losses by Illegal Tobacco Trade

The Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) noted on Thursday that any efforts to raise taxes on tobacco products in Greece will only lead to further losses in public revenue as the illegal tobacco trade will extend. According to data presented...

Greece Tries To Contain Smuggled Cigarettes

The Greek government continues to tax tobacco products as part of the austerity measures demanded by international lenders while simultaneously trying to stop the growing trade in illegal cigarettes that threatens revenues. Cigarettes are a prized commodity in Greece. Forty...

Contraband cigarettes seized

Eleven people (nine foreign nationals and two local men) were arrested by the coast guard aboard two separate vessels off the coast of Elefsina on Saturday and charged with massive contraband cigarette smuggling. According to authorities, the Ukrainian-flagged freighter "Alla"...

Mysterious Abandoned Ship Found in Zakynthos

Port authorities are investigating the case of a cargo ship that was found abandoned on the steep west coast of Zakynthos, Greece, on Monday, December 1. The 57-meter ship, named “AMARANTHUS” originated from Palau Islands. Port authority officers patrolling the...

Greek Smokers Pay the Highest VAT in EU

Successive changes in tax laws for tobacco products have changed the Special Consumption Tax (SCT) from a mainly proportional to a primarily flat tax, reducing the price differential between cheaper and more expensive tobacco products, based on a study...

SDOE Targets Tobacco Smuggling

The bulk tobacco ban of 2013, reminds of the ban imposed in Greece 130 years ago as the country's financial crimes squad SDOE is again trying to crack down on the elusive crime of tobacco smuggling, which has a...

How a Shipwreck Transformed a Pristine Beach on Greece's Zakynthos Island (video)

It is perhaps the most photographed shipwreck in the world. Lying upright on a sandy beach on the northwestern coast of Zakynthos since October of 1980, the wreck of the “Panagiotis” is visited by millions of tourists. Despite the worry...

Greek Universities in Turmoil; Opposition Pledges to End Asylum

The Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) was shuttered on Wednesday, while the School of Philosophy at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) has been occupied by anarchists. Professors and students are warning that the campuses have...