Chisinau, November 2nd – In the frame of the SECI Center/SELEC Bi-annual awards, the First Prize for 2011 was granted today by Mr. Petros Petroff (SELEC Acting Director in charge with operations) to Mr. Vadim Vrabie, SIS Deputy Director, during a ceremony which took place in Chisinau, at the Headquarters of the Security and Information Service of Republic of Moldova.
The awarded case represents the biggest seizure of smuggled cigarettes made this year in Europe with over 80 tons of cigarettes disclosed in a warehouse in Megara, Greece.
The Operation «Megara» was fully coordinated and supported by the Operational Support Department of the SECICenter/ SELEC in cooperation with EUBAM, Greece and Moldova; Bulgarian, Romanian and Turkish customs authorities being also involved in the exchange of information.
The original modus operandi and special detection techniques used during the investigation resulted in a seizure of a quantity of cigarettes having an estimated market price of 12 million euro. Thus, this case was considered as a fine example of law enforcement effective cooperation in SEE, using SECI Center/ SELEC communication channels and operational capabilities.