Customs officers found contraband in the car of Ukrainian diplomat’s wife (video)
23 February 23:49
Hungarian customs officers have detained a car carrying the wife of a Ukrainian diplomat with several hundred packets of cigarettes in it. This was reported in the tax and customs administration of Hungary, reports the Hungarian Customs Service
The driver of the car and its passenger, the wife of the diplomat, claimed that they were not carrying goods requiring declaration.
“The doors of the bus were sealed with a paper tag with a Ukrainian stamp confirming diplomatic immunity. When the tax officers announced the inspection, they locked themselves in the car. One of the tax officers was able to open the door through the window. In the minibus found 141 thousand packets of cigarettes”,
– said in the message.
Hungarian customs officials did not specify the name of the detainees. Uzhgorod city council deputy Vitaly Glagola said that the minibus was carrying the wife of the first secretary of the Ukrainian embassy in Hungary, Larisa Shmeleva, and the driver, Maryan Krushelnitsky, was at the wheel.
“Larisa Shmeleva is the wife of Dmytro Shmeleva, the first secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Hungary. He previously worked in the State Border Guard Service as head of the internal security department of the eastern department, and then as an official representative of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine at the embassy of Belarus.”
– wrote Glagola.
Hungarian customs officials note that the Ukrainian was interrogated as a suspect in the offence of budget fraud causing material damage on a particularly large scale, considering that his act caused financial damage to the domestic budget of more than a quarter of a billion forints.
The woman, a Ukrainian national, was allowed to leave the scene freely because of her diplomatic immunity.
The driver was taken into custody and faces up to 8 years in prison for fraud. The measure of restraint will be chosen by the Hungarian court.