Border guards and customs officers at the Western border detained a smuggling operation involving diamonds and iPhones
On Sunday, October 12, the press service of the Western Regional Directorate of the State Border Guard Service reported the discovery of diamond smuggling at the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Precious stones in the cabin of a Mercedes minibus traveling from Germany were attempted to be smuggled without declaration by a 41-year-old driver from Ivano-Frankivsk.
The case involves three diamonds weighing 1.30, 0.52, and 0.42 carats. According to the driver, he was supposedly supposed to send the diamonds to Kyiv by mail. The press service of Lviv Customs clarified that the diamonds are valued at over 200,000 UAH and are lab-grown stones.
Customs officers drew up an administrative protocol under Part 2 of Article 471 of the Customs Code of Ukraine – “Non-declaration of goods transported across the customs border of Ukraine by citizens.” The penalty under this article provides for a fine of up to 30% of the value of the smuggled goods.
On the same day, border guards and customs officers also discovered the smuggling of five new iPhone 17 ProMax devices, which a 25-year-old woman attempted to transport across the border without declaration.
She was crossing the border between Poland and Ukraine on foot and declared only one iPhone. During the inspection of her belongings, undeclared equipment was found, with an estimated value of 320,000 UAH.
The woman faces the same penalty as the driver with the diamonds.
12 October 2025 г., 18:10
