Three men jailed after smuggling £25m of fake cigarettes into Scotland

Three men have been jailed after they smuggled £25m worth of fake cigarettes and tobacco into Scotland.

Damian Rapacki, 36, Michal Zynda, 40, and Marek Nadzieja, 31, ran the supply-chain operation from a warehouse in Glasgow and a storage unit in Hamilton.

Over a 17-month period, the group imported in excess of 100 million fake cigarettes and counterfeit, hand-rolled tobacco in 26 deliveries from European suppliers – the equivalent of five million packets.

The deliveries originated in Austria and were driven through Holland to the warehouse in Glasgow’s east end which acted as a central distribution hub.

Rapacki leased the warehouse and oversaw deliveries while also travelling to London to sell the consignments in bulk quantities to criminal buyers.

Zynda was responsible for gathering and managing criminal cash from the sale of counterfeit cigarettes and hired at least 17 vans for the onward distribution of the goods.

Both men were responsible for arranging shipments from mainland Europe to Glasgow.

On August 14, 2020, three outbound transfers were made from Glasgow, two of which were later stopped heading south on the M74 by police.

A search of the Glasgow warehouse by officers from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) recovered over 4.2 million counterfeit ‘Mayfair’ branded cigarettes.

The trio were found to have smuggled millions of fake cigarettes. COPFS

Stewart Digney, operational lead at HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: “The illicit tobacco trade steals money from public services, undercuts legitimate businesses and funds other crimes that impact our communities. 

“We will continue to tackle this trade with our partners at the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce and we encourage anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco to report it on GOV.UK.”

They were sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh after pleading guilty to being involved in serious organised crime between June 2019 and November 2020.

Rapacki, of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, was jailed for six years and nine months.

Zynda, of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, was imprisoned for five years and 11 months, while Nadzieja, of Wishaw, Lanarkshire, was sentenced to four years and three months in jail.

Prosecutor Sineidin Corrins, of COPFS, said: “Counterfeit goods of any type undermine legitimate businesses and steal tax revenue from the public purse. Illegal tobacco sales are also often linked to wider criminal activity.

“Illicit tobacco products of this type can also contain any number of substances of which the purchaser is unaware,

“This makes them even more hazardous to health than legally purchased cigarettes.

“These three men have now been brought to account for their crimes.

“We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure legitimate businesses are safeguarded and will always consider legal proceedings when it is in the public interest to do so.”

All three accused will now face confiscation action under Proceeds of Crime legislation to recover the cash they gained illegally.