A total of €1,000,000 in cash was seized by customs after checks, while more than 140,000 contraband cigarettes, cigars and tobacco were also seized, as announced today by the Independent Inland Revenue Authority.

The Customs continue to carry out extensive controls, noting great successes in the field of combating smuggling and the illegal trafficking of liquid assets and tobacco, in implementation of the operational planning of the AADE, notes the Authority in a relevant announcement and adds: Of the cases recorded in the last period the following cases are indicatively mentioned in the specific categories:

Commitment of liquid assets

1. AADE customs auditors identified and seized a large sum of money, following controls on passing vehicles upon their entry into the country through the border station of Evzones. Specifically:

• In an inspection of a truck with NMK plates they discovered carefully hidden bundles of banknotes totaling €280,000.00 and $45,000.00.

• In an inspection of a car with German license plates and a driver of Ukrainian nationality, they discovered €140,000.00, in addition to the amount of €60,000.00 that had been declared.

• In an ICHE check of a car with German license plates they discovered €39,780.00 in the driver’s luggage and wallet.

• In an ICHE check of a car, €38,600.00 was found carefully hidden in the trunk of the car and in the pockets of the driver, a NMK national.

• In an ICHE check of a car with Greek plates, they found €30,000.00 in total, €20,000.00 in the driver’s bag and €10,000.00 under the gear lever.

The sums of money which, in violation of the relevant provisions, were not declared to the Customs, were frozen and the prescribed procedure was followed.

2. AADE customs auditors seized a significant amount of money, following checks they carried out on passengers in the Extra Schengen arrivals hall of “EL. VENIZELOS” airport. Specifically:

• In the hand luggage of a passenger who had arrived from Amman, Jordan
they identified €80,000.00.

• A passenger from the UAE, with a Greek passport, was found with $50,000.00 under a makeshift double bottom of his hand luggage.

• With the assistance of the sniffer dog “Bart”, they located $18,900.00 in envelopes in the carry-on luggage of a passenger from Dubai, UAE.

• In the luggage of a passenger from Doha, Qatar, they discovered $20,200.00 and €8,000.00, stuck to A4 stickers, among documents.

• €11,500.00 was found in the hand luggage of a passenger who arrived from Tel Aviv, Israel, in envelopes.

• €10,350.00 and $440.00 were found on a passenger coming from Beirut, Lebanon.

• A total of €24,000.00 was found in the hand luggage of two passengers from Doha, Qatar, of €12,000.00 each.

The above money, as it was not declared to the Customs, was held for further control during the prescribed procedure and fines of €33,462.00 and $22,385.00 were imposed.

3. The customs auditors of AADE proceeded to identify and seize a large sum of money, after checking passengers in the arrivals hall of “MACEDONIA” airport.

Specifically, they identified in:

• passenger of Greek nationality, who arrived from Georgia, $30,350.00 and €35.00

• passenger of Greek nationality, coming from England, €21,910.00

• passenger of Greek nationality, arriving from Switzerland, €10,250.00 and CHF 3,160.00

• passenger of Albanian nationality, coming from Serbia, €16,070.00 and CHF 1,450.00

• passenger of Georgian nationality, who arrived from Georgia, €11,600.00 and 2,915.00 GEL

• passenger of Armenian nationality, arriving from Armenia, €8,100.00 and $5,000.00

• Israeli passenger, arriving from Israel, €22,350.00, $183.00 and ILS 1,440.00

• passenger of Turkish nationality, arriving from Turkey, €11,000.00, $350.00 and TRY 3,300.00

• passenger of Greek nationality, coming from Turkey, €14,250.00

• passenger of Greek nationality, who arrived from Georgia, €20,605.00, $300.00 and RUB 178,505.00

• passenger of Serbian nationality coming from Serbia, $14,643.00 and €1,020.00

• passenger of Turkish nationality, coming from Turkey, €14,560.00 and CHF 550.00.

The sums of money were frozen, because they were not declared to the Customs, while the prescribed fines were imposed, of which €38,593.1 have already been collected and an additional €18,000 is expected to be collected. In one case, the fine was collected and the remaining amount of €20,623.49 was frozen and attributed to debts that existed in DOU.

Seizure of contraband tobacco products

1. AADE customs inspectors at Heraklion airport “NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS” proceeded to locate and seize 102,640 contraband “AMERICAN LEGEND” brand cigarettes and 8 kilos of “AL FAKHER” brand hookah tobacco, with corresponding duties and taxes amounting to €24,070.73 “, following information from the Athens Airport Customs.

With the assistance of the sniffer dog “Grey”, they targeted eight suitcases on the arrivals belt of the Athens-Heraklion flight, which also contained the luggage of the Cairo-Heraklion transit flight. The suitcases were received by four people, three men and one woman, of Egyptian origin, residents of Athens, who were immobilized with the assistance of AT Heraklion Airport officials. During the check of the luggage, contraband tobacco was found and three people were arrested, as the fourth escaped. During the preliminary investigation, the details of the fourth person were revealed, as well as the plan for the four to go to Piraeus that same night by ferry. The inspectors and “Grey” went to the port and located on board the two suitcases and the fourth person, who was arrested with the assistance of officers from the KLI Security office. After the preliminary investigation, the arrested persons were taken to the Criminal Prosecutor of Heraklion as part of the spontaneous procedure.

2. The AADE customs inspectors proceeded to locate and confiscate tobacco products, after checks on passing vehicles, upon their entry into the country through the Evzon border station.

Specifically:

• In an inspection of a truck with NMK plates, they found 41,000 contraband cigarettes, carefully hidden in a storage compartment of the passenger. All prescribed procedures were followed and the multiple fees imposed were collected.

• During an inspection of a car with Turkish license plates, 350 cigars were found, carefully hidden in luggage in the trunk of the car and in hand luggage placed on the passenger seat and on the back seat. Subsequently, the prescribed procedures were followed and the imposed multiple fees, amounting to €11,073.56, were collected.

3. The AADE customs inspectors at the Rio-Patra toll road, with the assistance of the specially trained tobacco detector dog “Pitsour”, proceeded to locate and seize 104 kilos of loose finely chopped tobacco for the manufacture of hand-made cigarettes. Specifically, in three consecutive checks of buses on the Agrini-Athens line, a total of seven parcels were found in the luggage compartment, containing per check 50, 41 and 13 kilograms of bulk tobacco, with the evaded duties amounting to €22,790.21. The investigation continues to establish the identity of the sender and recipient.