Police have discovered a 700-metre-long smuggling tunnel between Slovakia and Ukraine, the Slovakian interior and finance ministers said on Thursday.
"It's like a film about the US-Mexican border and completely unprecedented in Slovakia," said Finance Minister Peter Kazimir.
Two people have been arrested, Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said, and 13,100 cartons of cigarettes confiscated at the entrance to the tunnel in Slovakia's Nizne Nemecke, which exits in Ukraine's Vysne Nemecke.
Police have discovered a 700-metre-long smuggling tunnel between Slovakia and Ukraine, the Slovakian interior and finance ministers said on Thursday.
"It's like a film about the US-Mexican border and completely unprecedented in Slovakia," said Finance Minister Peter Kazimir.
Two people have been arrested, Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said, and 13,100 cartons of cigarettes confiscated at the entrance to the tunnel in Slovakia's Nizne Nemecke, which exits in Ukraine's Vysne Nemecke.
The tunnel is also suspected to have been used for people smuggling.
No further details were given about the suspects detained since more arrests were expected, added Kalinak.
The smugglers had been "unusually professional," according to police.
The tunnel matched high mining standards and had even been fitted with a small train and tracks for transporting goods.
Both ends had been fenced off by the smugglers.
Slovakia's coffers had been deprived of up to 50 million euros (61 million dollars) in tobacco tax because of the tunnel, which had been in operation for "at least a year," Kazimir said.
The tunnel also represented a breach of the European Union's passport-free Schengen zone.
"The fact that we've discovered this tunnel is not just important because of the lost tax income but also because in the coming a year a report is expected on how we can secure Schengen's exterior borders.
"It's extraordinarily important to us to show that we can protect the EU's borders," said Kalinak.
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