Customs investigators smashed a Europe-wide gang of suspected tax fraudsters in Berlin and Brandenburg, among others, on Wednesday morning.
Customs announced that three suspects had been arrested.
More than ten million euros in tax damage are said to have resulted from a so-called carousel business with beer.
Berlin / Cottbus - The three-man gang aged between 25 and 37 are accused of having sold around 26 million liters of beer on the black market in France and Great Britain.
In these countries the national beer tax is higher than in Germany.
However, Frankfurt (Oder) was registered as the tax warehouse for their freight from France and the Netherlands, to which the gang only transported the beer on paper.
The three were previously investigated on suspicion of drug smuggling.
The investigators assumed that the trio wanted to transport drugs from France to Frankfurt (Oder) with canned beer as a camouflage load.
This was not confirmed, but there was also no trace of the officially stated beer freight, which triggered further investigations.
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dpa