Undeclared EUR 189,050 found at Danube Bridge 2 border checkpoint

Customs officers found a total of undeclared EUR 189,050 during two separate inspections in the area of the border crossing checkpoint "Danube Bridge 2" at Vidin-Kalafat, the Customs Agency said on Wednesday.

In the first case, customs officers stopped for inspection a truck with a Turkish registration number travelling from Western Europe to Turkey. Customs inspectors found a black envelope wrapped with insulating tape, containing EUR 89,050, hidden above the driver's seat, behind the covers in the upper part of the cab.

In the second case, officers of the Lom anti-narcotics sector of the Ruse Customs Territorial Directorate inspected a truck with a Turkish registration number. Customs inspectors found the sum of undeclared EUR 100,000 hidden in the factory cavities of the cab, the Customs Agency said.

The drivers were sanctioned under the Currency Act and administrative offence certificates were drawn up, the agency said in its announcement.

Since the beginning of September until today, in a total of six cases, undeclared currency has been seized at this border crossing to the amount of EUR 445,000 and GBP 15,000. The smuggled currency was found in all six cases in trucks with Turkish registration, driven by Turkish citizens. The currency, in four of the cases, was hidden in structural cavities of the vehicle, in the others - in the dashboard of the vehicle, in the luggage and in the clothes of the drivers.