Russian police smash illegal $30 mn cheesemaking ring

Russian police on Tuesday said they had detained an “international criminal gang” that produced contraband cheese worth some $30 million using banned Western ingredients.

Russian officials are currently waging war against produce from the West prohibited under a year-old embargo introduced in retaliation for sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine.

Authorities earlier this month started bulldozing piles of cheese, peaches and even frozen geese after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the destruction of food smuggled into the country illegally.

Now police in the Moscow region say they have arrested six people for producing cheese worth some $30 million (27 million euros) with banned Western rennet, a substance containing enzymes used for cheese production.

Authorities “foiled the activities of an organised international criminal gang in the Moscow region whose members have for a long time been engaged in smuggling sanctioned products from abroad,” police spokeswoman Yelena Alekseeva said in a statement.