Nine people have been detained during a specialized police operation by the Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Anti-Corruption Bureau in Svilengrad, Elhovo and at the Lesovo border checkpoint. Among those detained are six officials and three civilians, the Directorate of Anti-Corruption Bureau announced, BGNES reported.
The investigation is into a scheme to divert goods seized by customs authorities, which according to the procedure should have been destroyed and then buried.
It mainly concerns clothes, shoes and perfumes bearing protected trademarks, as well as other items that infringe intellectual property rights. The goods were stored in customs warehouses in the territories of Svilengrad and Lesovo.
According to investigators, some of the goods were diverted precisely during the process of their destruction. After being prepared for destruction and cutting, some of them did not reach the final stage - burial. Instead, the goods were appropriated by participants in the scheme and subsequently sold on the territory of Bulgaria, including via the Internet.
“The operation was checked in the process, when part of the goods was in the process of destruction, the so-called cutting“, explained Chief Inspector Slav Dobrev from the Directorate for the Prevention of Corruption and Extremism.
According to him, the detained civilians are related to the activity of destroying the goods. They worked in an external company engaged in this procedure.
The “Customs“ Agency stated that they are fully cooperating with the investigation. An inventory of all warehouses where goods under customs control are stored is underway in order to determine the exact quantity of the diverted goods.
At the moment, it has not been established from which specific warehouse all the goods were removed. The investigation is ongoing, and the quantity of the diverted goods is still being clarified.
The nine were detained in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code. The materials on the case have been reported to the District Prosecutor's Office in Haskovo, which is yet to decide whether and against which individuals charges should be brought.
The specialized operation continues.