Smuggling

The Serbian Customs have prevented the smuggling of EUR 390,000 in cash at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport, it has been announced on Monday.

The money was discovered in an x-ray image taken of a suitcase lost on May 30.

A Syrian man was intercepted by customs officers over the weekend just before he was about to enter Turkey with a hidden carload of 95,000 rounds of .22mm ammunition.

Alternate Minister for Culture Nikos Xydakis expressed Greece’s full support for the directives issued by UNESCO on the national policies to combat illicit trafficking of cultural goods. Speaking at the Third Meeting of States Parties to the 1970 Convention in Paris, he presented the Greek proposal on the illegal cultural trade called “Stop Illicit Trafficking”.

European Union nations approved plans Monday for a naval operation to go after the human trafficking networks that are sending thousands of migrants weekly across the Mediterranean toward Europe or to their deaths. NATO said it stood ready to help out if needed.

Smuggled cigarettes arrive in Turkey from Georgia, northern Iraq and Bulgaria, while there are large sums of money being transferred from the eastern parts of Turkey to Istanbul in line with smuggling activities, according to recent data from Turkey's financial crime investigation board (MASAK), daily Milliyet has reported.

Malaysia will turn away boats bearing desperate migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh unless they are in imminent danger of sinking, a top coast guard official said May 13.

Pakistani authorities have seized more than 3 tons of hashish bound for the Middle East and Europe on an oil tanker, one of the country's largest hauls of the drug ever, police and coastguard officials said on May 6. 

Turkey's coastguard has rescued more than 600 people trying to cross the Aegean sea over the last five days, including women and children fleeing war-torn Syria in rubber boats, a provincial governor's office said on May 5.

Police seized 358 kilograms of heroin, allegedly brought from Iran and worth approximately 9 million Turkish Liras, from a flat in Istanbul's Esenyurt district on April 27.

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.