site.btaCustoms Officers Seize 300,000 Cigarettes Concealed in Furniture Exhibit Item

Customs officers of Sofia Customs Directorate seized 300,000 pieces (15,000 packs) of Bulgaria-banded cigarettes concealed in a pallet shipment to the Netherlands, the Customs Agency said on Tuesday.

During a routine check of a warehouse in Sofia by the method of risk analysis on July 7, a team of customs officers selected a shipment prepared for dispatch as an exhibit in a bathroom furniture exhibition. In the cavities of the wooden packaging, the customs officers found 37 cartons containing factory-packed cigarettes with Bulgarian excise duty bands.

The cigarettes with a market value of BGN 90,000 in Bulgaria were intended for illegal distribution on EU territory where their market value is triple the purchase price in this country.

Work on the case continues to establish the perpetrators and launch administrative criminal proceedings under the Excise Duty and Tax Warehouses Act.