Bucharest, March 16th 2017 – SELEC hosted today at its premises the Conference on preventing and detection of the illicit traffic of tobacco products organized by the Romanian Customs General Directorate with the participation of heads of customs services from Republic of Bulgaria, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Republic of Serbia and Ukraine, as well as customs attaches to Romania, directors of the regional customs directorate of Romania, representatives of EUBAM and of the main cigarettes’ manufacturers.
The conference aimed discussing aspects related to the inter-institutional cooperation among the customs administrations in the region and debriefing the targeted monitoring operation codenamed “Shield” conducted in February 2017 by the customs services of Romania and its neighboring countries, in order to detect and counteract the illicit traffic of tobacco products.
Opening remarks were addressed by Mr. Dorel Fronea, Vice President of the Romanian National Agency for Fiscal Administration, Mr. Ionut Misa, Secretary of State, Ministry of Finance of Romania, Mr. Bogdan – Nicolae Stan, President of the Romanian National Agency for Fiscal Administration and the Director for Operations of SELEC, Mr. Romulus Ungureanu.
Mr. Ungureanu presented the objective and activities of SELEC, with a focus on the smuggling of cigarettes phenomenon in the region, highlighting the endeavors of the SELEC Member States in preventing and combating this type of crime. The Director for Operations of SELEC also mentioned that smuggling of cigarettes causes significant financial losses for the states’ revenues and that all available tools should be used in order to tackle this crime more effectively.
In the framework of the SELEC Anti-Fraud and Anti-Smuggling Task Force, two regional operations and eleven joint investigations conducted by the Member States were supported by SELEC in 2016, the Report on the Situation of cigarettes and tobacco smuggling in Southeast Europe being drafted on annual basis and disseminated to the law enforcement authorities of the twelve SELEC Member States
