Customs officers at Kapitan Andreevo check point seized more than 120 kg of gold

Record-breaking more than 120 kg of gold was seized by customs officers at Kapitan Andreevo check point. Gold bars, jewellery and ingots were seized. The driver, who is a Bulgarian citizen, has been detained and charged.

Representatives of the District Prosecutor's Office in Haskovo, the Customs Agency, SANS, the Ministry of Interior and the Border Police gave a briefing on the case.

Yesterday, the Prosecutor's office charged a 47-year-old Bulgarian citizen with attempting to smuggle numerous gold items across the border. The object of the smuggling is of a particularly large size - the value of the gold items is over 10 million BGN.

The smuggling channel has existed for several months, said Atanas Ilkov, Minister of the Interior.

"Most likely, the precious metal that is being transported to Turkey is being returned through the same channel to Europe already with finished products that are already available on the European market," he added.

Georgi Georgiev, Head of the Customs Agency, said the shipment was a record for the past 40 years.

"The largest amount seized until now was about 40 kg," he told reporters.

He explained that the thorough customs inspection lasted over 13 hours and the large amount of gold was taken out from various concealments - in the dashboard and others.

The concealment in which the gold items were kept was extremely well camouflaged in the vehicle. It took hours for the investigators to reach it, the Minister explained.

"The gold bars are of extremely high content and of different weights. The citizen has been detained. He is to be remanded in custody," the district prosecutor said.