smuggling

Cigarette smuggling to Romania has dropped to 12% in May 2011, from 36.2% in 2009, following the efforts of the Customs authority, Prosecutor's office, National Anticorruption Department, cigarette producers and the press, Sorin Blejnar, head of tax authority ANAF, said Wednesday.

Romania’s Supreme Defense Council decided in its meeting Monday that all bodies in charge with fighting tax evasion and smuggling will draft a joint plan of action in order to crack down on financial crimes, the Romanian Presidency said in a press release Monday.

Smuggled cigarettes have come to account for 36% of the total Romanian cigarette market in the first two months of the year, from 22% in the last quarter of 2009, according to a survey by Novel Research.

Romanian border police with the western customs house of Nadlac discovered Monday night about 370,000 packs of contraband cigarettes, hidden in a truck carrying hamburger buns on its way to Germany.

Over 45 tons of smuggled perfumes worth nearly EUR1.6 million, destined to Europe’s black market, were seized in the past two months by the border police in Arad, western Romania.