Washing powder mafia busted
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
15.05.2013 07:45
Eight tonnes of counterfeit washing powder as well as a haul of counterfeit cigarettes have been seized by police in an operation that covered seven regions of Poland.
Photo: cbs.policja.pl
Law enforcement officers searched 30 suspect locations and detained seven members of an organised crime ring dealing in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit washing powder of a leading brand.
The investigation is being supervised by prosecutors from Rzeszów, south-east Poland.
The Central Investigation Bureau has announced that over the past year it had had reports of a production line in Mińsk Mazowiecki, central Poland, from where packages of false washing powder were being sold in Poland as well abroad.
The manufacturer was also turning out his own make of washing powder as a decoy.
The illicit powder was mainly distributed to wholesalers as well as owners of household chemistry stalls at markets and bazaars.
Two the detained are from the Podkarpacie region; one is the owner of a printing workshop.
Two more printers were detained in Kraków.
A person from Lublin is being held for organizing supply of components and distribution of the finished product.
At the production plant in Mińsk Mazowiecki, law enforcement officers discovered more than 300,000 counterfeited cigarettes, as well as an amount of tobacco by a Polish producer with fake Polish excise labels. (ek)