Border police seize contraband cigarettes worth 500,000 lei

A driver was caught smuggling cigarettes to the value of over 500,000 lei through the customs post Giurgiulesti – Galati. The cigarettes were hidden in a truck, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vasile Shargo, the head of the Ministry of the Interior’s Frauds Investigation Division, told a news conference that while the truck was being escorted to Chisinau by two police cars, another truck intervened to hinder the transportation of the seized contraband. Thus, the police arrested also the organizer of the scheme, who was driving the second truck. He was placed under arrest for 30 days. According to Vasile Shargo, the cigarettes were to be smuggled into Romania. The Prosecutor General’s Office took legal action over contraband smuggling. The two men face 5 to 15 years behind bars. Since the start of this year, the Ministry of the Interior has identified 24 cases of smuggling cigarettes worth over 2 million lei.