OLAF part of an operation against smuggling and fraud on the EU’s eastern borders

09/12/2020

37 million illegal cigarettes, over 1.8 tons of tobacco and more than 3.5 thousand litres of illegal fuel were some of the seizures made by European border guards, police and customs officers in the course of operation Joint Action Day Arktos 2.
 
JAD Arktos 2 took place between 16-25 November and targeted excise fraud, particularly tobacco smuggling, document fraud and migrant smuggling at selected border crossing points at the European Union’s eastern land borders.
 
The operation was coordinated by Frontex – the European Border and Coast Guard Agency – together with Finnish and Latvian national authorities. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) provided its support along with INTERPOL, Eurojust, Europol, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia. 
 
With a long track record of protecting EU borders from counterfeit and smuggling – including tobacco and cigarettes – OLAF supported the operation by facilitating the exchange of information between the customs authorities involved and by lending its investigative expertise. 
 
More information on JAD Arktos 2 is available here.