site.bta Four Turks and Five Bulgarians Arrested for Smuggling 5.1 Million Contraband Cigarettes

Four Turks and Five Bulgarians Arrested for Smuggling 5.1 Million Contraband Cigarettes

Sofia, November 6 (BTA) - Bulgarian border police in Elhovo
broke a smuggling ring operating across the Bulgarian-Turkish
border, the Interior Ministry reported on Friday. The officers
detained four Turkish and five Bulgarian citizens as they were
trying to smuggle 5.1 million cigarettes of various brands which
 had no excise revenue stamps on the boxes.

"This enforcement operation is the best proof that the
protection of the border is at a very high level," Interior
Ministry Chief Secretary Georgi Kostov told a news conference in
 Elhovo, as quoted by the Ministry's press office. Kostov said
this is the largest amount of illegal cigarettes seized at the
Bulgarian border outside official checkpoints.

The local border police chief, Radoslav Sotirov, said the four
arrested Turks had crossed the border into Bulgaria illegally,
driving a tractor and a truck with Turkish number plates.
District Prosecutor Doichin Doichev added that the Turks were
taken into 72-hour custody, and the five Bulgarians into 24-hour
 detention. Pretrial proceedings were launched.