Three employees of the Leuseni customs post were sentenced to five years in jail for smuggling large quantities of cigarettes. They were also banned from working in the law enforcement bodies for a period of five years, IPN has learned from the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The case happened in December 2012, when a truck travelling from Moldova to Macedonia was stopped at the Albita border crossing point. The driver, who had dual, Moldovan and Romanian nationality, said he was conveying empty jars. But the Romanian customs officers determined that the truck was full of cigarettes, to the value of over 2.3 million lei.

The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office arrested a number of persons, including three customs officers. At the prosecutors’ insistence, the three were suspended from posts, while the truck driver was sentenced by the court of the Romanian town Husi to three years behind bars.

Earlier, three persons were convicted in this case in Moldova. These got four years and six months in jail each by definitive court decisions. Another culprit was put on probation, while the other two persons involved in this case were fined by 20,000 lei each.