Upon completing procedures, the Public Prosecutor’s Office started an investigation against eight persons for criminal acts in continuity: smuggling, concealing smuggled goods and custom fraud, computer forgery, and forgery of official documents.

Five of the suspects are Ministry of Interior’s employees.

“The previous procedures provided evidence that in 2021 and 2022 the suspects organized and participated in transfer of passenger vehicles by avoiding the custom controls and forging public documents, which they presented as original in order to register the cars in the country. After that, they sold them on the market, despite of knowing that the vehicles are subject to international criminal investigations. They acquired the vehicles in various European countries and transferred them into the country by forging the identification numbers  on the chassis to conceal their origin”, the PPO statement reads.