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An importer suspected of smuggling 61,000 electronic cigarettes: claimed that they were toys - voila! news

2023-01-23T17:50:28.588Z


The ban on publication on the name of the importer, Tzachi Kogot, owner of the company "Happy Birthday" was lifted. Customs investigators discovered in a container in Ashdod port 154 cartons full of electronic cigarettes, the cost of taxes on which reaches NIS 5.6 million. Kogut was arrested and released under restrictive conditions


In video: Seizure of smuggled electronic cigarettes in Ashdod Port (Photo: Tax Authority)

Tzachi Kogut, the owner of the Happy Birthday Company Inc. for importing toys, is suspected of trying to smuggle 61,000 electronic cigarettes into Israel through the Port of Ashdod, while avoiding paying taxes in the total amount of approximately NIS 5.6 million and giving a false statement to the tax authorities.



Kogut was arrested and released under restrictive conditions As part of an investigation conducted by the Tel Aviv Customs and VAT Investigation Unit at the Tax Authority, together with Ashdod Customs YSM inspectors and investigators. As part of the investigation, three containers imported by the suspect through the Port of Ashdod were detained for inspection, and it was declared that they contained toys.

397 electronic cigarettes in each of the 154 seized boxes.

A man smokes an electronic cigarette (Photo: Reuters)

A physical inspection of the contents of one of the containers, carried out by YSM inspectors and investigators at Ashdod Port Customs, revealed that at the end of the container 154 cartons containing approximately 397 electronic cigarettes with refills in each carton were removed. The assessment of the value of the taxes that Kogot was supposed to pay for the smuggled goods (purchase tax and VAT) amounts to approximately NIS 5.6 million.



The Magistrate's Court in Rishon Lezion rejected the suspect's request for a comprehensive publication ban on the case, on his name and details, and removed the temporary publication ban that was imposed for 11 days.

Judge Avi Westerman ruled that the suspect did not meet "the condition requiring proof of serious damage that will be caused to him, as explained in the ruling", and therefore the court is not required to "examine the balance between the prevention of damage and the public interest in advertising".

More in Walla!

Publication was allowed: these are the 4 young women suspected of trying to smuggle drugs

To the full article

The young women suspected of smuggling cocaine and ketamine in Israel (photo: photo processing, documentation on social networks according to Section 27 A of the Copyright Law)

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Yesterday, the names of the four young women suspected of trying to smuggle drugs into Israel were allowed to be published: Idan Zaover, Lee Foni, Oral Ben Haim, and Arbel Mizrahi. Their detention was extended today by eight days, after the court ruled that the news against them had grown stronger.



Last week, the police announced that the smuggling had been foiled .

A giant of more than 15 kg of cocaine and ketamine worth millions of shekels.

The four young women, residents of the center in their 20s, are suspected of trafficking, importing and exporting drugs.

Two of them were followed by the police along the route of their entry into Israel, from the plane gate, through passport control to baggage collection.



Idan Zauber, one of the four young women suspected of smuggling cocaine worth millions of shekels, claimed today (Monday), through her lawyers, that she does not know how the drugs got into their suitcases and who they were intended for.



"She went with friends on a trip to Germany, and after a few days when they came back, she was arrested, and from that moment, of course, the sky fell on her, she didn't know where it was coming from at all," she said in an interview with Anat Davidov and Gideon Oko on 103FM.

"This is something that is not easy to digest, and she needs to do one plus one and understand how she got to this situation."

  • news

  • News in Israel

  • Criminal and legal news

Tags

  • smuggling

  • Customs

  • Electronic cigarettes

Source: walla

All news articles on 2023-01-23

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