Customs officers seize contraband jewelry worth about 3m lei

A mobile team of the Customs Service found over 3.5 kg of silver and gold jewels with precious stones in a car traveling along the Bacioi-Chisinau route, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the institution. The operation was performed in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior’s Special Missions Division. The Volkswagen Sharan was registered in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia. The driver could not present accompanying documents for the transported parcels. The vehicle was escorted to the Chisinau customs office, where the driver took out 17 packages of different sizes. One of them contained 479 pairs of earrings wrapped in paper with writing in the Turkish language. A criminal case was opened over smuggling of contraband in extremely large quantities. According to the Customs Service, this is the largest consignment of contraband gold jewelry seized until now. Two more jewelry smuggling cases have been discovered this year. The seized jewels included a gold coin dating from 1898 and two gold ingot weighing 31 grams each, which were hidden in a toy.