Russian police bust bootleg cheese ring
Print Edition
Russian police said yesterday they had detained an “international criminal gang” that produced contraband cheese worth some US$30 million using banned Western ingredients.
Russian officials are currently waging war against produce from the West prohibited under a year-old embargo introduced in retaliation for sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine.
Authorities earlier this month started bulldozing piles of cheese, peaches and even frozen geese after President Vladimir Putin ordered the destruction of food smuggled in illegally.
Now Moscow police say they have arrested six people for producing cheese worth some US$30 million using 470 kilograms of banned Western rennet, a substance containing enzymes used to make cheese.
Authorities “foiled the activities of an organized international criminal gang in the Moscow region whose members have for a long time been engaged in smuggling sanctioned products from abroad,” police said in a statement.
Police claim the cheese, which was sold under counterfeit labels, had made its way into grocery stores in St Petersburg, as well as in the Moscow and Leningrad regions.
The suspects could face fraud charges that carry a possible jail term of up to 10 years.
Russian government bodies have warned citizens against consuming embargoed Western products, which they claim can be harmful.
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