Three men involved in smuggling tens of millions of pounds worth of counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco into the UK have been jailed for a total of 17 years.

Damian Rapacki, 36, Michael Zynda, 40, and Marek Nadzieja, 31, were sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday for their role in the £25million scam.

They pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow last month to being involved in serious organised crime.

The court heard how the trio sourced illicit products from Austria and used HGVs to bring the bootleg goods through mainland Europe and into Scotland, stashing the products in rented warehouses and storage units in Glasgow, Airdrie and Hamilton.

The court heard how the trio pocketed around £2.3million from their illegal scheme which they ‘transferred amongst themselves and others to conceal its criminal origin.’

Rapacki was said to have ‘controlled’ a yard in Glasgow’s Carntyne which become the gang’s ‘central hub’ for receiving the contraband products.

Their scam was foiled, however, when investigators began to gather evidence, with HMRC officials executing 11 search warrants across Glasgow, Hamilton, Airdrie and London in November 2020.

During those and subsequent related operations, more than six million illicit cigarettes and around £950,000 in cash were seized.

An illegal tobacco manufacturing site in Hamilton was also discovered and dismantled.

Prosecutor Alan Parfery said that between June 1, 2019 and November 19, 2020, the trio ‘knowingly participated in a large-scale organised operation to import, store, distribute and profit from counterfeit cigarettes and counterfeit hand rolling tobacco.’ He added: ‘Over this period, the group received 26 deliveries Europe comprising of in excess of 100million counterfeit cigarettes which equates to around five million packets of illicit cigarettes.’

Sentencing the trio, Lady Ross said: ‘These were cigarettes that were imported into the country and tax was not paid on them. This represents a loss to the public purse. Tax receipts pay for public services.’

Rapacki, of Airdrie, was jailed for six years and nine months, Zynda, of Wishaw, was locked up for five years and 11 months, while Nadzeija was sentenced to four years and three months.

Stewart Digney, Operational Lead at HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, warned they will continue to crack down on such operations, saying: ‘The illicit tobacco trade steals money from public services, undercuts legitimate businesses and funds other crimes that impact our communities.’ And Sineidin Corrins, of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, added: ‘Illicit tobacco products of this type can also contain any number of substances of which the purchaser is unaware.

‘This makes them even more hazardous to health than legally purchased cigarettes.’

The Crown will call a proceeds of crime hearing, aimed at seizing the men’s ill-gotten gains, later in the year.