Cigarettes account for 20 percent of all smuggled cargo in Kyrgyzstan

Cigarettes account for 20 percent of all smuggled cargo in Kyrgyzstan, reports 24kg citing the representative of the State Customs Service of the Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Mamytbekov.

According to him, eight heavy trucks with contraband cigarettes have been detained. Each is estimated at approximately 35 million soms.

Control and accounting are not carried out in disputed areas; smugglers use these channels to transit goods.

"Most of the seized batches are with excise stamps from Tajikistan. Then they sell such cigarettes in duty-free shops and on Osh bazaar", - said Almazbek Mamytbekov and added that illegal movement of goods would not have been possible without the help of customs officers.

"When we reveal such facts, we dismiss the unscrupulous employees, and the State Service for Combatting Economic Crimes initiates criminal proceedings against them", - Almazbek Mamytbekov noted.

Iskander Aliyev, representative of the State Service for Combatting Economic Crimes, said that more than 40 facts of customs officers’ complicity in smuggling have been detected.

"The Qazaq Times"