The case of the baggage trolley

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			The case of the baggage trolley Cuban cigars attract not only smokers, but smugglers. In recent times, there have been fewer fake cigars : firstly, because excise stamps have been introduced, and the crooks have not yet worked out how to forge them; secondly, because the police have been raiding shops known to be selling fakes, and their owners are afraid of getting involved with smuggling. But there are still plenty of channels for supplying the market with phoney ‘Havanas’ and they are unlikely to be all closed down in the near future. zoom At 8.30 in the morning on August 26, 2003, Flight No. 334 from Havana touched down on the runway at Sheremetievo Airport. The first to leave the aircraft were the members of the crew. Descending the walkway, they retrieved their baggage and headed off to the passageway reserved for service personnel. This was all watched by a plain-clothes man, because one of the stewards had attracted his attention: first, because he seemed to have far too much baggage – on his trolley there were two large black bags, a briefcase, a case and a huge cardboard box; secondly, because he was clearly nervous and continually looking round. Here in are fake Cuban cigars which could have ended up on the counters of Russian tobacco shops had they not been detected by customs officers. Most fakes were seized in May 2004 – and they all had bands labelled ‘Edicion Limitada’. The black market producers were clearly trying to keep abreast of the times and offer their customers the very latest products. But in some respects they clearly went too far. Having passed through customs and gone into the arrivals hall for stuff, the suspicious steward moved in the direction of service corridor ‘C’, which led to the airport’s main hall. As he was about to enter it, he was stopped by police officers. It turned out that his name was Dmitri Pavlov and that he was an employee of Aeroflot. An examination of his baggage revealed 58 undeclared boxes of cigars (1,450 cigars in all) with a total value, as experts later established, of 467,641 roubles (about $16,000). It was clear proof of smuggling. Pavlov did not deny it; in fact he admitted that he had bought the cigars in Havana to sell them at a profit in Moscow. The police completed the necessary documentation and forwarded it to the Sheremetievo Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. Nothing suggested that there would be any particular complications in this seemingly banal case of smuggling Cuban cigars. Gran corona cigars (with a length of 235 mm) are found in two lines only: Montecristo and Sancho Panza. In 2002, there was a limited series of Cohiba Estucne in this same format, but the Partagas brand has never produced this type of cigar. The first indication that all might not be as simple as it seemed came during the investigation, when Pavlov started to change his statement. Now he claimed that after landing, he collected his own baggage – a case and a briefcase containing his personal things and two boxes of Montecristo, which he had bought for himself. After passing through customs Pavlov claimed he then walked down corridor ‘C’, where he saw a trolley standing by itself with two black bags and a cardboard box on it. The bags looked familiar to him, and then he realized that it was baggage belonging to his relative, Alexander Kirillov, who was also a steward on the same flight. Pavlov thought that this relative must have gone on ahead and popped into the section reserved for stewards, leaving his trolley in the corridor. So he put his baggage on it and headed for the exit – where, of course, he was detained. So, according to Pavlov now, only two of the Montecristo boxes were his; the other 56 belonged to his relative. The relative, naturally, denied this, saying that he had nothing to do with the valuable cigars and Pavlov’s new story looked increasingly unlikely. Until recently, the Trinidad line consisted of one cigar – Fundadores. A year ago another four were added, but there was no double corona among them. Furthermore, no limited series within the Trinidad brand have been issued. The logos on the inside of the top of the box and on the cedar linings are different. The top box has a new one that was introduced last year. But suddenly, just as things were looking bad for Pavlov, there appeared another witness, whose testimony appeared to confirm – at least partially – what Pavlov was claiming. This was a certain Grekhov, who had previously worked as a steward, and he had a curious story to relate. On the day in question, Grekhov claimed that he had been seeing his friend, Miguel, off on a flight to Barcelona. As a parting gift, Grekhov had taken 56 boxes of Cuban cigars, which he had put into two black bags and a cardboard box. When he and his friend had arrived at the airport building at 7.45 in the morning, they were both fairly drunk. After a bit, Grekhov started feeling ill and went to the service toilet, which was located in sector ‘C’, leaving the trolley with the baggage near the door through which the crew came after landing. Grekhov then spent about 15-20 minutes in the toilet and then came out to find that his trolley was missing. He tried the left-luggage, where lost items are often handed in, but his things weren’t there. An appeal to the police, as was pointed out in the investigation, also produced no results. The Solomones cigar is found in only one brand – the Cuaba. Neither Partagas nor Cohiba have this format. The boxes in the photo on the right are of different colours and badly made. The guarantee stamp should be on the left, the other stickers on the right. This was the version that Pavlov’s lawyer pushed hard at the trial. He claimed that Pavlov had mistakenly taken Grekhov’s trolley, thinking it was his relative’s, and that there was no smuggling at all on his part. It was all an unfortunate mistake. And as for poor Grekhov, who had lost cigars worth almost half a million roubles, he should basically be considered a victim. But for some reason he hadn’t insisted on pressing criminal charges in relation to the loss of goods of such value. Why? Usually passengers who have just lost a purse or a wallet kick up a lot of fuss and demand that the police catch the thief. And here there were goods to the value of almost half a million roubles... The Exclusivos format was never issued in the Romeo y Julieta line. The sticker with the words Edicion Limitada has been stuck on carelessly and, furthermore, the year is omitted. And that was not the only thing that didn’t add up. Pavlov claimed that he had taken ‘his’ trolley in service corridor ‘C’, where only service personnel could go, but Grekhov was supposed to have left his trolley by the doors of that corridor, but on the arrivals hall side. The exit from the service corridor was guarded, and a trolley left by the toilet simply couldn’t have got from the arrivals hall to the customs area. That meant that the trolley Pavlov had was not Grekhov’s – assuming that Grekhov did in fact have a trolley. The court, for its part, also felt that there was a lack of logic and proof in this, and decided that Grekhov’s evidence had no bearing on the present case. Apart from which, there was plenty of evidence against Pavlov. This included the evidence given by the plain-clothes policemen, the materials put forward by the investigation and – most damning – the footage of the CCTV camera, which was trained on people passing through the customs area. It showed Pavlov going through the customs not only with a case and a briefcase, but also with two black bags and a cardboard box. In other words, it proved clearly that he had the baggage with him well before he entered corridor ‘C’ and ‘found’ the mythical trolley. Piramides cigars were issued in the Edicion Limitada series in 2003. The court came to the conclusion that the cigar boxes belonged to Pavlov and that his actions could be properly classed as smuggling. He was pronounced guilty and sentenced to six months imprisonment. But, bearing in mind his service record, his good character references and various other mitigating factors, he was given a suspended sentence. Double corona cigars were issued in a limited series in 2003. Experts established that all the cigars were in fact fakes, and it became clear that Pavlov was not bringing them in for himself; he was just a courier, and there was doubtless a well-organized channel for marketing them. Furthermore, the appearance of the witness, Grekhov, was most likely no coincidence: the organizers of the business were probably afraid that Pavlov would talk, so they wanted to give their courier a bit of support by muddying the investigation. But Pavlov did not give them away, and the investigators were not fooled. by YEGOR ZIMIN