Record border seizures: customs stop trucks with contraband cigarettes
In a single truck, customs found 450,000 packs of cigarettes worth about 1.8 million euros. The driver was detained, and officials speak of an unprecedented result.
Archive image · Photo: Edal Anton Lefterov / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Bulgarian customs officers have stopped trucks carrying large amounts of untaxed cigarettes within days at the Lesovo and Kulata border crossings. On 6 October, officers found around 450,000 packs of cigarettes worth about 1.8 million euros in a Polish-registered truck coming from Greece. On 8 October, another Polish-registered truck was found loaded with large quantities of cigarettes without Bulgarian excise stamps.
Deputy head of the Customs Agency Stefan Bakalov called the result of the whole operation "unprecedented" for Bulgaria. The driver of the first truck, who has no previous convictions, was detained for up to 72 hours, and prosecutors planned to seek pre-trial detention. The two crossings lie on the borders with Greece and Turkey.
According to the Blagoevgrad district prosecutor's office, he is charged with possessing large quantities of excise goods without stamps. A total of four pre-trial proceedings have been opened. The suspect is presumed innocent. The authorities initially gave no figure for the amount in the second truck.