National Customs Agency

Customs officers from the Customs Directorate of Ruse seized over 1 million pieces of cigarettes in the area of the border crossings in Vidin and Ruse. The majority of the tobacco products are with a valid Bulgarian excise stamp, but are transported in violation of the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act, and the violation was found in joint actions with border guards.

On 13 June 2026, in the area of the Vidin ring road, on the basis of a risk analysis and a pre-selection, officers of the Border Police Directorate-General stopped two Bulgarian-registered trucks transporting foodstuffs to Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands for inspection. The trucks were escorted to the Vidin Customs Bureau, where customs inspectors from the Ruse Customs Territorial Directorate carried out a thorough inspection of the vehicles and their cargo.
Customs officers found that the groceries in the trailers were partitioned according to the required temperature regime. In each of the refrigerated trucks, there was a section with boxes for croissants, in which the customs inspectors found a total of 51 154 boxes or 1 023 080 pieces of cigarettes of different brands with Bulgarian excise stamps, as well as 1000 boxes (20 000 pieces) with expired stamps. The two drivers were issued with warrants under the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act, although they denied knowing about tobacco products intended solely for sale in Bulgaria.
During another check, on 7 June 2026, in the area of the Danube Bridge border crossing at Ruse, customs officers found hidden boxes of cigarettes in various places in the driver's cab of a vehicle with Turkish registration. The total number of tobacco products detected was 1047 boxes (20,940 pieces) of cigarettes, lined with Turkish excise stamps. Cigarettes were seized. Pre-trial proceedings have been initiated in this case.
The total quantity of detained tobacco products with Bulgarian, expired, and foreign stamps is 1,064,020 pieces or 53,201 packets of cigarettes.