Over 1,500 liters of alcohol without proven origin and quality, as well as without Bulgarian excise stamps and documents under the Excise and Tax Warehouses Act (ETW) were seized by customs officers during an inspection at several related sites in the Dobrich region.
After conducting a risk analysis, a mobile team from the Central Customs Administration made a control purchase from a specialized small site for distilling 50 liters of alcohol, declared as “rakia“, for which the inspectors established that the alcohol was brought from a private property nearby. During a subsequent inspection, 26 liters of alcohol without documents were found, stored in the specialized small site for distilling, as well as 1,063 liters of draft alcohol – different types of plum, grape, apricot and peach brandy according to the inscriptions on bottles and cans, stored on the private property of the same person. In parallel, control actions were carried out on a private property and adjacent to the inspected SMOD of another owner, and 433 liters of alcohol without a document of origin were found.
A total of 1572 liters of alcohol were seized, which was stored in plastic cans and glass bottles.
Two pre-trial proceedings have been initiated in the cases, which are being conducted by investigating customs inspectors and are under the supervision of the District Prosecutor's Office - Dobrich. The customs inspectors have also found eight violations of the Excise and Tax Warehouses Act (EAD), for which acts have been drawn up.
The inspection is part of the intensified control actions of mobile customs teams in the area of Varna Customs. In other similar inspections, 1,606 liters of brandy without excise documents of unclear origin and quality were already seized.