Dubai chocolate smuggling busted in Austria
In Austria, smugglers have been caught with the much sought-after Dubai chocolate in their car trunks. Customs caught criminals twice who were trying to smuggle the goods in duty unpaid on the same coach from Turkey, as reported by the Austrian Ministry of Finance.
07.12.2024, 11:58
SDA
In October, undeclared boxes of chocolate were discovered for the first time in the trunk of the bus at a border crossing with Hungary, and then again in November, it said. A total of 2,540 bars, each weighing 200 grams, were involved. The ministry put the value at 52,000 euros. This corresponds to a good 10 euros per 100 grams. In some places, this chocolate is sold in stores for twice the price.
The smugglers wanted to avoid duties and taxes, said Austria's Finance Minister Gunter Mayr. However, the money is needed to finance roads and schools, for example. As punishment, they had to pay double the import duties - a total of 4,000 euros.
Dubai chocolate has become a trend in recent weeks thanks to clever advertising campaigns on social media. It has a filling of pistachio cream and roasted dough threads, called angel hair. Many stores only offered a limited number of bars at the start of sales, so long queues formed outside the store doors.
