Huge Amount of Smuggled Cigarettes Seized at Port of Burgas

A large quantity of smuggled cigarettes worth an estimated €750,000 has been seized at Port of Burgas.

The illegal tobacco products were hidden inside a lorry transported by ferry from Batumi, Georgia, to Burgas, Bulgaria.

The ferry carrying the vehicle had travelled from Batumi to Burgas. During unloading yesterday, customs officers carried out a detailed X-ray inspection of the cargo and discovered more than 3.5 million pieces of smuggled cigarettes.

The cigarettes were packed into a total of 180,000 boxes and, according to investigators, had been cleverly concealed within a false cargo in an apparent attempt to evade X-ray detection.

Stefan Klichanov, head of the Anti-Drug Trafficking Unit at Port Burgas Customs, said the shipment had been declared as mattresses.

“They were declared as mattresses and looked like mattresses, but they were not actually mattresses,” he said. “They were rolled-up foam covered with textile to imitate mattresses. Inside, there was a foil cylinder containing the cigarette cartons. The cigarettes were wrapped in insulating foil, most likely intended to conceal them during X-ray inspection.”

Manuel Manev, deputy district prosecutor of Burgas, said the cigarette packs carried Belarusian excise labels and the brand names were written in Russian.

“We can only speculate at this stage where their intended market may have been,” he said.

photos by BTA

The driver, a Georgian national, has been detained and formally charged with smuggling.

Investigators have not disclosed who was due to receive the shipment, but said the sending company is Chinese.