Never Seen an Illegal Gas Station in a Truck Wash? Watch This Police Video

A sight you'll never forget.

National Investigative Bureau of the Rapid Response and Special Police Service (KR NNI) in Szekesfehervar arrest a suspect in extensive crime ring raid (Source: Police.hu)

The criminal investigation was launched in the spring by Szekesfehervar's International Crimes Unit of KR NNI in connection with a supposed illegal fuel station, and over time the role of those involved in the crime became increasingly clear. It was suspected that a Szekesfehervar-based company operating as a truck wash had purchased fuel on the black market and then resold it.

The 44-year-old company director ran the illegal business with his 19-year-old son. Drivers from a transport company in Budapest would come to the truck wash on a daily basis, where they would leave in cans a portion of the fuel they had been entrusted to transport. They would siphon gasoline or diesel from the tanker trucks' compartments depending on their shipment. Investigators found evidence of the involvement of eight drivers, including the brother of the man who ran the truck wash.

The criminal organization is suspected to have pocketed around HUF 50 million (over EUR 127 thousand) from the illegal operations since the beginning of the year.

The KR NNI department in Szekesfehervar organized a coordinated operation to catch the perpetrators, with arrests and searches carried out at 12 locations simultaneously. These included the towns of Szekesfehervar, Gardony, Magyaralmas, Osku and Varpalota. At one location, the Counter-Terrorism Center (TEK) operational unit carried out the arrest, while in the others, along side the NNI investigators, many additional staff were involved. Read more here [in Hungarian].

In the course of searching the premises, the police seized all equipment and documents that could be used as evidence. They also seized more than 17 million forints (worth over 43 thousand euros), nearly four thousand in euros and five high-value vehicles: three cars and two motorcycles.

Following their arrest, the ten men were questioned as suspects by the KR NNI. The father and son were charged with organized crime, commercial scale money laundering of significant amounts, while the eight drivers were charged with organized crime, commercial-scale embezzlement of significant amounts. The suspects were released pending the proceedings.

The investigation continues with the KR NNI examining who else may have been involved in the illegal activity.