Nine times more firearms were seized by customs officers in the last four months of 2026 than in all of 2025. The summer months are also productive in the seizure of gold in the form of jewelry and bars. The operations of the officers from the intelligence and investigation departments and the anti-drug trafficking departments lead to an increase in the number of seized vaping liquids, as well as thousands of shipments of synthetic and semi-synthetic cannabinoids, synthetic cathinones, benzodiazepines, synthetic opioids, ecstasy, methamphetamines, GBL, kratom and DMT.
The “Customs“ Agency has worked on nearly 5,000 cases of customs, excise and currency violations and crimes during the nine months of this year. 4,600 administrative criminal proceedings and 260 pre-trial proceedings have been initiated. The majority of the proceedings – over 55%, were formed after the new government and management of the “Customs“ Agency took office.
479 firearms were seized during attempted smuggling in the last nine months, which is over 9 times more than the result achieved for the entire 2025. 95% or 457 weapons have been detected since the end of May.
56.7 million pieces of illegal cigarettes were seized for the period January - September, which is 12% more than the quantity seized for the entire last year (50.7 million pieces). Of the quantities of illegal cigarettes seized in the first nine months of 2026, over 29 million pieces were detected during joint operations with other partner services, conducted in February and March, respectively. The remaining over 27 million pieces of cigarettes are a direct result of the activities of customs and excise intelligence and investigation, of which about 10 million pieces were seizures made in the first half of the period, and 17 million pieces in the second half from the end of May to the end of September.
In 2026, significant quantities of liquids for electronic cigarettes were also seized. The total quantity of liquids found in violation of excise legislation is 422,460 ml. The main part of the quantity was seized in the months from June to September inclusive - nearly 358,000 ml.
During the nine months, nearly 30 kg of gold products, over 15 kg of silver products and 1.66 kg of gold bars, which represent a highly liquid means of payment, were seized. The largest quantities of gold products and bars were seized in the summer months - June, July and August. At that time, over 13.7 kg of seized gold items and a gold bar weighing one kilogram were identified.
Over 6.6 million counterfeit goods were seized by customs officers during the nine months of the year. Of the 724 reported cases, 520 or nearly 72% were seized in the period from the end of May to September. The trend is towards breaking up shipments into smaller quantities in order to minimize risk and make inspections more difficult.
Active work continues to prevent trafficking in small boats, with 32 boats seized this year, all of which were identified during the period June - September.
Over 3,600 kg of narcotics and precursors have been seized by the “Customs“ Agency over the past 9 months in 268 cases, with a larger number of shipments being identified during the period from the end of May to the present. Among them, the largest amount is cannabis products. The largest number of cases of seized narcotics in postal and courier shipments, as in the ongoing operation “Hydra“ over the past four months, more than 200 cases with over 3,800 shipments have been reported, identified since the end of May. The most common narcotics contained in the shipments are synthetic and semi-synthetic cannabinoids, synthetic cathinones, benzodiazepines, synthetic opioids, ecstasy, methamphetamines, GBL, kratom and DMT. In over 38% of the total number of cases, more than one narcotic substance was seized.
During the reporting period, customs officers prevented 11 cases of smuggling of narcotics together with other law enforcement agencies - the Directorate General for the Prevention of Drug Trafficking and the Directorate General for the Border Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Agency for National Security and other partner services.