From: New Europe
By Irene Kostaki, Journalist, New Europe
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“In recent years, OLAF has paid particular attention to ships loaded with significant quantities of cigarettes that are being offloaded in the ports of Montenegro, which mainly originated from Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, and Cyprus,” the report said. “These vessels reached their destinations with cigarettes that were most likely being brought in through the EU smuggling market that either illegally landed directly on EU territory or were transported to other vessels on the high seas, completely unknown to the customs officers or the coastguard, which were then smuggled into the EU.”
Since the beginning of 2015, eight vessels moored in the port of Bar (Montenegro) were seized and their cargo of cigarettes – which was smuggled into Greece and Spain – was impounded. The cigarettes loaded onto six of these vessels were destined for Libya, one for Cyprus and one for Lebanon. In total, almost 350 million cigarettes were seized on these vessels, corresponding to nearly €70 million in customs, excise and VAT duties.
