Cologne – At a Raid The main customs office in Cologne opened on Saturday evening Cologne Ten shisha bars searched throughout the city. The officers discovered numerous suspected violations.
The Cologne customs officers secured numerous pieces of evidence in the shisha bars on Saturday – including a lot of untaxed tobacco. © Main customs office Cologne
As the customs office announced on Sunday, more than 300 tobacco containers were confiscated during the searches, which apparently were never taxed.
“The majority of these were bags and plastic containers containing untaxed water pipe tobacco, which is suspected to be illegally produced tobacco,” said Jens Ahland, press spokesman for the Cologne Main Customs Office.
With untaxed tobacco for hookahs, the profit margin for criminals is sometimes even higher than with drug trafficking because of the large quantities, it said.
Teenagers attack with knives and tools: boy intervenes with electric shocker
Investigations were initiated on site against all operators. The controls are not only important because of the financial damage, the health aspect also plays a major role, emphasize the customs officers.
“In the past, we have found residues of metal, plastic and mouse droppings in illegally produced hookah tobacco,” says Ahland.
Hookah tobacco must be taxed in Germany and adhere to certain health guidelines to be legal. (Archive image) © Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
The conditions in the illegal production facilities, some of which are located abroad and from where they deliver illegally across the borders, are sometimes catastrophic.
In addition to the searches for untaxed tobacco, the customs office also checked the personal details and employment relationships of 33 employees to ensure they were correct.
An evaluation of this was not yet available on Sunday.
