Police officers from Bulgaria, Austria and Germany have teamed up in a raid that busted an international gang for faking cigarettes.

The gang's illegal business caused Germany's budget losses of close to EUR 200 M, experts believe.

Three years of surveillance and covert operations by police officers in the three countries finally paid off, Bulgaria's Interior Ministry announced. Two illegal factories for producing fake cigarettes under the Phillip Morris brand have been discovered.

81 Bulgarian cops from various cities took part in the operation that was launched May 31, and resulted in the arrests of 93 suspects. Sixteen of them were Bulgarian, and they acted in cooperation with former employees of Bulgartabak.

The Bulgarian culprits played a key role in the building of the criminal scheme as they bought and recycled waste production capacities. They mounted the equipment and tried it out in Bulgaria, then sent it abroad when it proved to work. Two factories - one in Germany and one in Austria received the machines and operated them under the watch of Bulgarian experts.

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