site.bta180,000 Cigarettes Seized at Danube Checkpoints in Three Days

Bulgarian customs officers seized 180,420 cigarettes at Danube River checkpoints, at the border with Romania, in three days, the Customs Agency reported on Tuesday.

On February 4 a Bulgarian-registered car was ordered to stop for a comprehensive customs check at Danube Bridge near Ruse before it could leave Bulgaria. Instead of going where he was told, the driver steered the car in the opposite direction against the flow of traffic, moving towards Bulgaria's interior. The customs inspectors went after him and caught him near the town of Byala with the assistance of police.

The arrested suspect admitted to smuggling cigarettes. The law enforcers found 1,412 packs containing a total of 28,240 cigarettes, hidden in a special compartment lined with upholstery near the back seat of the car. Pretrial proceedings were instituted in the case. A statement of resisting a customs check and a protocol of detecting a secret compartment in the car were drawn up against the driver.

In another case on Danube Bridge at Ruse, enforcers intercepted 10,300 undeclared cigarettes (515 packs) with Bulgarian excise revenue stamps. The cigarettes were hidden in cavities made by the car manufacturer under the floor and inside one of the front doors. The cigarettes were confiscated, and a written statement of violation was drawn up against the driver.

Upstream, at Danube Bridge 2 near Vidin, an aggregate of 140,880 cigarettes (7,044 packs) with valid excise revenue stamps were impounded in two separate cases as they were being transported in violation of the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act. The two consignments were found in trucks carrying food products to Germany and the Netherlands, respectively. Enforcers scanned the vehicles with a mobile X-ray system and carried out physical checks of zones of unusual density. The Bulgarian drivers of the two trucks failed to present documents for the cigarettes. The cigarettes were confiscated. Written statements of violation were drawn up against the drivers.