Customs officers at Malko Tarnovo seized 4,000,000 undeclared Turkish lira from a passenger's suitcase in a minibus coming in from Turkey, the Customs Agency said. The sum is equal to €71,760.
The check took place on Friday, 16 October, at about 10:10pm on the inbound lane. The minibus has Bulgarian plates, and the driver and all passengers are Bulgarian citizens. At the checkpoint, they said they had nothing to declare.
Inspectors searched the minibus and the passengers' luggage. In the suitcase of one of them, they found 8 plastic bags of Turkish lira in various notes. The passenger had no papers to show where the money came from.
Officers wrote him a report for breaking the Currency Law and opened administrative penalty proceedings.
In September, we reported that Malko Tarnovo customs officers found smuggled cigarettes in two checks on the inbound lane – in the roof of a minibus that came in from Turkey, and in the suitcases of a bus passenger.
The Burgas Customs Office reminds travellers that anyone carrying €10,000 or more, or the equivalent in another currency, into or out of a non-EU country must declare it to customs.