Sunday, September 21, 2008
There are definitely days when this would come in handy
Why pump something so banal as oil through a pipeline when you can send Stoli:
The accused built a 2-kilometre pipeline through a reservoir that marks the Russian-Estonian border, and managed to pump 6,200 litres of spirits across before getting caught.
"It might sound weird and unbelievable but it's a very real criminal case," Mari Luuk, a spokesman for Estonian prosecutors, told AFP.
The smugglers – 11 Russians and Estonians – face up to five years in prison if convicted.
Vodka is vastly cheaper in Russia than in its ex-Soviet neighbour Estonia, which joined the EU in May 2004. Top of the line vodka can run to hundreds of pounds in Russia, but the man on the street often satisfies himself with bottles costing as little as £2.
The men were caught after Estonian tax officials found 1,159 litres of untaxed alcohol hidden in a truck in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
The find led them to the pipeline, submerged in a reservoir near the Estonian border town of Narva, which the Russian-led smuggling ring used between August and November 2004.
More often than they ought to be, taxes are the mother of invention.
1 Comments:
By 
Dan Kauffman, at
Sun Sep 21, 11:47:00 PM:
I would like to know what these top of the line Vodkas are
After consulting with Russian friends when I visit I usually bring back Rooski Standart Non-Export ( cost a tad more and doesn't have a fancy bottle)
Though last time I was tempted by
Tvaskaya gold filtered,
We are still talking $10 to $15 a liter range.
A tip Stolichnays is NOTHING like it was when it was first imported back in the early '70s the quality has gone down IMO to domestic US vokda levels
