Customs officers at the Kulata border crossing stopped a freight truck on 6 October and seized 449,958 packs of cigarettes without Bulgarian excise stamps, the Customs Agency said.

The truck and trailer came from Greece and have Polish plates. Officers picked it for a check after a risk analysis and found metal boxes holding cigarettes of three brands. In all, they contained 8,999,160 cigarettes, worth €1,789,852.80.

The district prosecutor's office in Blagoevgrad, Petrich branch, is leading and overseeing the pre-trial case, which was opened over holding a large amount of excise goods without stamps. A prosecutor has charged the driver, a Polish citizen with the initials M.K., who is being held for up to 72 hours.

The Blagoevgrad district prosecutor's office will ask the court to remand him in custody.

Officials from the Customs Agency and the Blagoevgrad prosecutor's office will give a briefing tomorrow, 9 October, at the Kulata customs office. The time has yet to be announced.

The National Revenue Agency (NAP) has stepped up tax checks at border crossings with Greece and Romania since the start of August, and picks vehicles for checks after a risk analysis. At a briefing on 9 September, the agency said more than 9,800 loads of goods with a high tax risk were checked between 8 August and 8 September. In the same period last year, about 2,700 were checked, more than 7,000 fewer. Inspectors found 59 breaches of tax law and imposed 162 security measures worth more than €633,000. Over the same period last year, there were 128 such measures, worth about €352,000.