Largest clandestine cigarette factory dismantled in the Netherlands

Investigators have uncovered a large clandestine cigarette manufacturing plant in a suburb of Roermond.

A clandestine factory has been discovered in the town of Herkenbosch according to investigators from the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), the Dutch public agency in charge of financial investigations. Several industrial cigarette-making machines and around 140 tonnes of tobacco were seized, representing the equivalent of €20 to €25 million in lost taxes.[1].

A product probably intended for the British market

The English labels on the cigarette packets suggest that the goods were destined for the British market, where illicit trade appears to have declined sharply in recent years. The owners of the premises fled just before the inspection, according to local TV channel 1Limburg. The goods and machinery seized will be destroyed, and the brands of cigarettes produced have not been revealed. FIOD officers had already dismantled three similar factories in 2021, but this was the largest discovery to date, as evidenced by the constant passage of trucks.

An industrial type organization

The FIOD representatives considered that the millions of cigarettes produced clandestinely not only constituted a loss of revenue for the Dutch state, but also harmed the anti-smoking policy pursued by the Netherlands. They also considered that this traffic was an attack on free competition between cigarette producers. The stocks of tobacco and the configuration of the dismantled factory suggested an industrial type of organization, the illicit tobacco trade proving to be a significant source of criminal money.

It is currently too early to know precisely who the instigators of this clandestine factory are. These machines are in fact very few in number and are referenced, so it would in principle be possible to identify their route and history.

Keywords: Netherlands, smuggling, clandestine factory

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