Romanian NGOs describe cross-border cigarette smuggling trends

Several Romanian NGOs organized on Tuesday a conference on illegal cigarette smuggling across South East Europe. Last year alone, Romanian National Customs Authority managed to confiscate over 5 million smuggled cigarette packs. A Romanian journalist team together with Ukrainian journalist Vlad Lavrov investigated the way cigarettes are smuggled across the Eastern borders of the European Union.

The journalists were offered by Romanian and Ukrainian smugglers cigarettes of all sorts including the kinds that sell in duty free shops, illegally produced ones and Ukrainian-made cigarettes smuggled into Romania

Journalists found that cigarettes were smuggled from Ukraine to Suceava, North Romania at lower prices than those made in Romania. For example, a Marlboro package can be purchased with 3.5 Romanian Ron on the black market while the legal price is double.

Romanian National Customs Authority officials argue that last year, they confiscated almost 100 million smuggled cigarettes.