Customs officers arrested on smuggling charges

Customs officers arrested on smuggling charges

BELGRADE -- A group of eight suspects, two Customs Administration officers among them, has been arrested on suspicion of organizing a smuggling ring.

The eight, arrested in Subotica and Novi Sad in northern Serbia, have been named with their initials and age as D.R. (43), R.R. (33), S.P. (45), M.R. (45), D.M. (56), M. A. (54), L.H. (42) i E.P. (53).

The Interior Ministry (MUP) announced on Monday that the operation was carried out in cooperation with the Organized Crime Prosecution and the Customs Administration.

The suspects D.R. and R.R. are believed to have organized the group which from December 2012 until December 2014 smuggled TV sets and other consumer electronics worth about EUR 2.8 million, and also organized a network that sold the goods to buyers in Serbia.

The Customs officers L.H. and E.P. are suspected of allowing the smuggled items to enter the country via Horgos and Kelebija border crossings between Serbia and Hungary.

By avoiding to pay customs duty and taxes, the criminal group incurred losses to the Serbian state budget in the amount of EUR 908,000, said the MUP.