16,000 contraband cigarettes, hidden in a truck carrying refrigerators

At the Giurgiu Border Crossing Point, a 50-year-old Romanian citizen presented himself to enter the country, driving a truck, consisting of a tractor and a semi-trailer . According to the documents presented, the driver was transporting refrigerators from Turkey to Romania.

After carrying out the control over the vehicle, the border police noticed several packs of cigarettes hidden in the chassis of the semi-trailer.

Based on the joint action plan for preventing and combating customs fraud, illegal migration and tax evasion, the support of a mobile team from the Bucharest Regional Customs Directorate – Mobile Team Service was requested. During the unsealing, unloading and checking of the transported goods, a specially designed niche was discovered in the front of the semi-trailer, in the space between the inner wooden floor and the outer metal floor (chassis).

After opening it, 16,000 unstamped cigarettes (800 packs) from Turkey were discovered hidden under the goods declared in the documents.

The cigarettes, worth a total of 24,000 lei, were confiscated by the customs workers, and the Romanian driver is still being investigated for the crime of smuggling.