Smuggling of drugs, weapons and counterfeit goods, as well as trafficking in illegal migrants were uncovered during the international operation "Balkan Bridge II", announced at a briefing at the border checkpoint "Kapitan Andreevo" by the Director of the DG "Border Police" Anton Zlatanov and the Deputy Director of the "Customs" Agency Stefan Bakalov.
The operation lasted a week and ended today. It was attended by the Directorate General (DG) "Border Police", the "Customs" Agency, representatives of Frontex and Europol, the UK's National Crime Agency, the customs of the Federal Republic of Germany, officials from the US, France, Austria and Italy, and observers from Japan, Greece and Romania. The operation took place at all Bulgarian border crossings and crossings.
Seven illegal third-country nationals were discovered, hiding in secret places, over 58 kg of narcotics, over 300,000 pieces of cigarettes without tax stamps, 58,680 vials of e-cigarette liquids, over 22,300 counterfeit textile products, 9,000 perfumes, toilet waters and cosmetic products, 1,750 packages of medicines, two rubber boats for trafficking migrants across the English Channel from France to the UK and over 1,130 parts for firearms and ammunition, as well as other prohibited goods. This is shown by the summarized data from the operation.
One of the most important things in the joint initiative of all these services from so many countries is the trust we have in each other and that they have in us, emphasized Anton Zlatanov.
As a trend, he noted that Bulgaria is currently keeping migrant pressure at extremely low levels. Statistical data show a 40% lower pressure compared to last year, with illegal migration at negligible levels, which does not apply to other European countries.
“All these interactions in real-time information exchange with more than 10 different services from different countries were extremely useful. This contributed to the better result during this operation“, commented the deputy director of the “Customs“ Agency Stefan Bakalov. He added that what is of particular interest to the department is the increase in attempts to traffic firearms across the border. "Over the past four months, we have seized more than 450 pistols, with more than 1,100 firearms magazines discovered yesterday alone," Bakalov said.
"Today is not the end of an operation, but rather a recognition of what can be achieved when partners working in the same direction join forces", said Jan Gunal from the UK's National Crime Agency, who specifically highlighted the seizure of two small boats intended to transport illegal migrants across the English Channel.
"Cross-border crime knows no boundaries and takes advantage of all available opportunities to profit from the illegal movement of goods, people and money", said Jan Denecke from the German Customs Investigation Service. "Therefore, our response must be much stronger than the ability of these organized groups to adapt," he added.