site.btaCustoms Seize Over One Million Cigarettes Near Ruse, Vidin Border Crossings

Customs officers seized 1,064,020 cigarettes near the Ruse and Vidin border crossings over the last ten days, the Ruse Customs Territorial Directorate said on Wednesday.

Most of the tobacco products carried valid Bulgarian excise stamps but were being transported in breach of the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act, the Customs Office said.

The checks were carried out jointly with Border Police officers.

In one case near the Danube Bridge at Ruse, customs officers found 1,047 packs of cigarettes, equivalent to 20,940 cigarettes, hidden in various parts of the driver’s cab of a Turkish-registered lorry. The packs bore Turkish excise stamps.

In another case, on the ring road near Vidin, Border Police officers stopped two Bulgarian-registered lorries transporting food products to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. They were escorted to the Customs Bureau for a thorough inspection.

Customs officers found that the food products in the trailers had been separated by partitions according to temperature requirements. In each refrigerated lorry, they found a compartment containing croissant boxes, inside which were a total of 51,154 packs of cigarettes, or 1,023,080 cigarettes of various brands, bearing Bulgarian excise stamps, as well as 1,000 packs with expired excise stamps.

The two drivers said they were unaware of the tobacco products. Administrative offence reports were drawn up against them.