TALLINN, Estonia (AFP) — Eleven suspects have been charged over a smuggling operation to pump vodka from Russia to Estonia via a two kilometre (one-mile) underwater pipeline, Estonian prosecutors said Tuesday.
"It might sound weird and unbelievable but it's a very real criminal case," Mari Luuk, spokeswoman for the Estonian Viru Circuit Prosecutor's Office told AFP.
She said the 11, who included Russians and Estonians, were likely to go on trial soon and faced up to five years in prison if convicted.
The illegal pipeline was submerged in a water reservoir located between Russia and Estonia near the north-eastern Estonian border town of Narva.
The operation was profitable as the price of vodka in Russia is nearly one third cheaper than in Estonia, a member of the European Union since May 2004.
The illegal pipeline was discovered by Estonian tax and customs department officials in November 2004 after tax department officials found 1,159 litres of illegal alcohol in a truck in Estonia's capital Tallinn.
Police records show the four main organisers of the smuggling operation, all ethnic Russians, had used the pipeline between August and November 2004.
According to prosecutors the men had pumped at least 6,200 litres of illegal spirit to Estonia, avoiding paying 57,000 euros (900,000 Estonian Crowns) in excise duty.
"The investigation also revealed that the men had tried to sell some of the alcohol in Tallinn in early November 2004 but the quality of the spirit was too bad and no buyers were found. They then transported their cargo back to Narva and later managed to sell it in Tartu, the second largest town in Estonia," Luuk said.
A similar vodka-pipeline between Russia and Estonia was discovered in the Narva river by Estonian border guards in 2006. "That time the pipeline was discovered before it was in use," Luuk added.
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