site.btaTwo Customs Officers, a Border Policeman and Two Others Charged with Smuggling Cigarettes Worth Tens of Millions of Leva

Two Customs Officers, a Border Policeman and Two Others Charged with Smuggling Cigarettes
Worth Tens of Millions of Leva

Sofia, April 11 (BTA) - The Plovdiv Regional Prosecution Office
said it has charged two customs officers, a border policeman, a
forwarding company chief and another executive of the company
with smuggling cigarettes worth tens of millions of leva.

The accused are customs officers Hristo Palazov and Yuri Goudev,
serving at the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint on the
Bulgarian-Turkish border, border policeman Yancho Georgiev and
the forwarding company executives Dinko Shtiryanov (CEO) and
Nikolai Perchemliev.

Palazov, Georgiev and Shtiryanov are accused of involvement in
the smuggling of 40 million leva in cigarettes on March 29.

For his part, Perchemliev, acting in complicity with Palazov and
Turkish smugglers, deliberately facilitated the transportation
of 15.5 million leva in cigarettes without excise revenue stamps
across the Bulgarian-Turkish border, the prosecution said.

The fifth man, Goudev, faces similar charges about 31 million
leva in cigarettes which were smuggled on March 17.