In Odessa, the Security Service exposed and blocked a scheme for the illegal transfer of sailors across the state border to the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

This is stated in the message of the SBU press center.

Special service operatives and investigators found that the management of one of the international groups of maritime companies organized the fraud. They hired Ukrainian sailors on their ships for a long time. Then the company's tugboats were illegally sent to the temporarily occupied Crimea and, after the completion of the work, returned to the Ukrainian ports.. Thus, the sailors violated the procedure for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine..

Within the framework of criminal proceedings initiated under h. 2 st. 332, h. 2 st.

332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, law enforcement officers conducted twelve searches in the premises and courts of the group of companies.

During the investigative actions, ship documentation, computer equipment and flash drives, contracts, including those concluded with Russian residents, almost 20 seals of private commercial structures, documents on the freight of tugs were seized. The found evidence points to the organization by a group of companies of illegal channels for sending sailors to work in the closed ports of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied Crimea.