At the border crossing with Austria at Jarovce – Kitsee, Slovak Customs officers on Tuesday pulled over a truck with German license plates that was found to be transporting 11.6 tons of illegal tobacco. The truck was driven by Bulgarian drivers.
“During a check of the trailer the customs officers found it was full of tobacco prepared for manufacturing of cigarettes. Since the drivers could not produce documents of its origin, the customs officers impounded the truck and detained the drivers,” said the spokeswoman for the Customs Office in Bratislava Zuzana Pavlikova. Based on information gained during their investigation, a search followed in a farm complex in Blatna na Ostrove in southern Slovakia, where customs officers seized another truck with additional 4.8 tons of illegal tobacco. Preliminary calculation of excise tax evasion of both cases is €1,163,000.
