20 million empty macarons and 10 tons of cigarette filters were seized by the Customs Enforcement teams affiliated to the Ministry of Trade during the operations carried out in two provinces.
A tobacco company in Adana Seyhan was closely followed within the scope of the joint work carried out by the Ministry of Commerce Special Team for Combating Tobacco and Tobacco Products Smuggling and the teams affiliated to the Mersin Customs Enforcement Smuggling and Intelligence Directorate. The teams, who went to the warehouse and production facilities of the company to carry out inspections, noticed that boxes of macarons were loaded on a trailer that was there. Upon the examination of the boxes in question, it was determined that the banderols on the boxes were invalid. Following the search warrant taken from the prosecutor's office, 12 million 20 thousand 400 empty macarons and 10 tons of cigarette filters were seized as a result of the searches made in the warehouse of the company and in the vehicle.
On the other hand, another truck, which was moving to Istanbul loaded with macarons from the same campus, was followed from both sides by the coordination of the Customs Enforcement Directorates in Mersin and Istanbul. It was determined that the macaroon brought from Adana was downloaded to the workplace of a tobacco company in Esenyurt, and the teams of the Istanbul Customs Enforcement Smuggling and Intelligence Directorate, acting upon the instruction from the Prosecutor's Office, carried out an operation at the workplace. As a result of the operation, a total of 8 million empty macarons were seized.
It was determined that the macarons and cigarette filters seized by the Customs Enforcement teams were worth approximately 15 million Turkish Liras. Investigations into the incident continue before the Adana and Büyükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor's Offices.