Illegal Tobacco Business in Europe: How Criminal Are Davoyan Escapes Justice for Cigarette Smuggling
The scandal surrounding a major illegal cigarette smuggling scheme in Latvia, uncovered last year, is suddenly taking a new turn – new details and people involved are emerging in the case.
Let us recall that in the summer of 2024, Elmars Laizans, one of the leaders of a group that had set up a large-scale scheme in Latvia for the production and supply of counterfeit tobacco products to other EU countries, was arrested. A few months after his arrest, the police liquidated the largest underground factory in Europe, which contained 30,000 boxes of cigarettes, tobacco, and equipment. In total, the amount was over 70 million euros. Almost forty people were also detained, some of whom hid from the police and are wanted.
As the investigation found out, the underground tobacco empire had been operating for years, and its profits amounted to hundreds of millions of euros. One of the reasons for impunity and such a long period of activity is corruption and investing money in the "right" politicians. Moreover, as it turned out, the "tobacco empire" had already been destroyed by the police once. However, this happened back in 2003 and not in Latvia, but in the Netherlands, where 12 people were arrested, including a certain Ara Davidovich Davoyan, who is called the shadow organizer of the entire huge scam.
Then the name of Elmars Laizans also came up, but Davoyan was sent to a Dutch prison, where, however, he spent only two or three years. No claims were made against him in Latvia, although he has a Latvian passport. What is interesting in this regard is that there is very little information about Are Davoyan. His name shines on the periphery of scandals with the murder of the owner of the meat processing plant Baltika (later renamed Marno), but precisely on the periphery. Davoyan’s name also shines in the scandal around the former head of the Riga Criminal Police Andrei Sozinov, who was accused of corruption. Davoyan’s name comes up in connection with the name of the defendant in the criminal case on the legalization of criminally obtained funds Uldis Laizans. And all - somehow in passing, as if by chance.
It is also unclear whether Uldis and Elmārs Laizāns are related. However, a source of Kompromat.lv in law enforcement claims that in certain circles they are called the "Beaver Brothers". In addition, they have a common business - the Rēzekne company Noliktava ABC belongs to two companies of Elmārs Laizāns ELTERS (43%) and CENTRO (35%), Jānis Purniņš (11%) and Uldis Laizāns (11%).
How it really happened is yet to be determined, but what is interesting is that in connection with last year’s arrest of Elmar Laizans, former police officer Andrei Sozinov suddenly appeared in the case, who approached his former colleagues with an offer of million-dollar bribes for them to "clean up" Laizans. Sozinov was not officially charged, but it seems that no bribe was taken either - the tobacco production was destroyed, and the trial and investigation are ongoing.
Perhaps, ahead of us there is sensational news about Ara Davydovich Davoyan himself, who prefers not to look into Latvia for now, spending his time in Russia and Dubai, where he has a business and real estate. Ara Davoyan has nothing in Latvia itself, so he has nothing to fear from confiscation. Although it should be clarified - officially, no. Because Ara Davoyan’s business is registered to front men and relatives. Thus, the already mentioned meat processing company Marno LLC is registered to a certain Sergey Izotov, who is called Davoyan’s nominee.
MJ Finance LLC is registered in the name of Davoyan’s sister, Elena Sagatelyan, through which she also owns Dārza Gatve, Skujeņu Audzētava, Lielupes Priedes, Shopping Mall and Ronek.
She is also listed as the owner of another “Marna” - this time not a meat processing plant, but a company engaged in real estate trading - OOO Marno J. The co-owner of this Latvian company, along with Elena Saghatelyan, is the Armenian OOO Marnoe Elite Real Estate.
Marno J is the owner of a number of other companies: Hotel Bellevue, Latomar, Orlando, MJ Trade, Projekts A13, Rafortis Capital, Daugava Residence, Rotas Aleja, Jūras Sēta and Pluss V.
It is unlikely that all this is a simple coincidence. And in fact, it is not – it is not for nothing that in 2016, Armenian citizen Ofika Davoyan, born in 1955 (Ara Davoyan’s mother), entered the “Top 10” of the largest transactions with Jurmala real estate according to Dienas bizess.
Read on the same topic:Chief physician Pavel Firsov’s "meat case" goes to court
This is only what lies on the surface. That Ara Davoyan registered the documents in his family’s name, using the money from smuggled cigarettes. Why the tax authorities did not have any questions is still an open question. Whether these questions have arisen now, after the huge scheme collapsed, is also not entirely clear.
But there is another, much more interesting and promising trace in Ara Davoyan’s love for Latvian real estate. This is the co-owner of one of the largest Baltic real estate companies, Baltic Sotheby’s, Ilze Mazurenko.
Who is called not just a person serving the business interests of an Armenian with a Latvian passport, but also Ara Davoyan’s mistress. What connects them in reality is not so important. What is important is that through Baltic Sotheby’s, which represents the premium segment of real estate in the Baltic countries, Ara Davoyan had an excellent opportunity to invest his illegal money in legal properties.
This is where all the property came from that made Ara Davoyan’s pensioner mother the winner of the unofficial competition for buyers of not the cheapest Jurmala real estate. In addition to Jurmala, other properties were also purchased. Only a few are known so far: Jurmala, Rotas 21; Riga, Old city, Skunu 15; Riga, Antonijas 13. According to information from the depths of the investigation, Ilze Mazurenko transferred Ara Davoyan’s illegal money through her front companies, through which the real estate was registered. The scale of the transactions can only be guessed at.
Ara Davoyan did not limit himself to Latvia alone – he has real estate in Armenia (Greenville in Yerevan), Bulgaria, the UAE, and the Krasnodar region of Russia. It is unlikely that Ilze Mazurenko helped him in all these transactions – apparently, there was a broker behind each country. And if Russia and Armenia are “black holes” for European justice, then in Europe, one can hope, the ends will be found quickly. Of course, if the Latvian police are really as serious as the current course of the investigation into the illegal production and smuggling of tobacco products shows.
And the fact that the main flow of counterfeit goods went to Western Europe and Great Britain seems to hint that hard times lie ahead for Ara Davoyan. And hope lies not so much in the law enforcement systems of these countries, but in the tobacco industry, in whose sphere of interests the Armenian Latvian Ara Davoyan so brazenly and rudely interfered with his counterfeit goods.
