Bulgaria - tobacco contraband..

Focus News Agency..
January 6, 2011 - Rumen Petkov, the first Interior Minister in the 2005-2009 government of the three-way coalition led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, resigned from his post on April 13, 2008, after a series of scandals sparked allegations of corruption and mafia connections in his department.

Bulgaria lost about BGN 1 B from the smuggling of cigarettes in 2010, Petkov said Tuesday, January 4th at a news conference at the headquarters of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
"This cannot happen without the collaboration of the state – the Interior Ministry, the Border Police, and the Customs Agency," he stated accusing the Borisov Cabinet – or at least some of its structures and aides of being involved in the cigarette contraband and other illegal activities. The former Interior Minister did not cite the sources of his data but mentioned a statement of the French Interior Minister who allegedly said that two-thirds of the contraband goods in Western Europe went though Bulgaria incurring total losses amounting to EUR 1 B.

Petkov proposed the forming of a Bulgarian-Turkish Commission to inspect trucks crossing the common border. "There have been trucks registered as bringing in cigarettes when passing through the Turkish border control, while the Bulgarian border control registered them as carrying plastic bags for Austria," he said.

Interesting to note back on November 2, 2010 - Bulgaria - Director of the Customs Agency announced Bulgaria ranks 1st in Europe in seizure of contraband cigarettes..

January 5, 2011 - Sofia. Bulgarian border police have seized two trucks of contraband cigarettes at Ilinden border checkpoint and close to Bansko mountain resort, commissary Zaharin Penov, director of Border Police DG, told FOCUS News Agency. The cigarettes were hidden in sacks of salt. The trucks were traveling from Italy to the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. While checking one of the vehicles at Ilinden checkpoint the border police found out that it had been included in the Schengen Information System. The two truckers and the owner of the firm managing the vehicles were detained.

References: Ex Minister Blasts Bulgarian Govt for Cigarette Contraband, Human Trafficking, Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency), 1/4/2011; Bulgarian border police seize two trucks of contraband cigarettes, FOCUS News Agency, 1/5/2011)

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