Customs Administration: In less than five months 85 criminal charges filed
The Customs Administration has filed 85 criminal charges for less than five months this year, which is equivalent to the total number of criminal charges filed in the three-year period from 2020 to 2022. According to Director Boban Nikolovski, record -breaking results have been achieved, and is acting on several fronts to fully suppress the long -standing crimes with used vehicles, abuses and fraud with food imports aimed at avoiding paying taxes.
According to Nikolovski, the pre -criminal procedures for crimes with used vehicles are prolonged.
– We are determined to deal with criminal gangs and to collect all duties to the state. This year, to the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption and the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Department of Investigation of the Sector for Control and Investigations has filed 41 criminal charges against 32 legal entities and 118 individuals for criminal offenses of 140 vehicles, with direct damage inflicted on the budget.
Referring to specific cases, Nikolovski noted that an attempt to illegally import a used car Mercedes was 350 for which duties of 450,000 denars were avoided. Mercedes has been seized and criminal charges have already been filed against nine people. Two freight forwarding, one from Skopje and the other located on Blace, a notary public, three customs officials and one police officer, were involved in the case. This organized network used counterfeit documentation and false documents.
– Criminal acts have been discovered in each stage of the case. It is a gross violation of all laws, with several crimes committed, forging a document, using a document with false content and abuse of office and authority. But here is not an important Mercedes, but that we have achieved the effect we have strained because the system we are building is very important – Nikolovski said.
In another case, the customs discovered that an importer with the help of a customs agent from 2022 to July 2024 imported cars and used false data to avoid paying some of the import duties in the amount of 1.6 million denars. These are 34 cars with a total value of 145 251 euros, with the suspects declaring their cars as motor vehicles for the transportation of goods in order to avoid paying tax on motor vehicles. Denar 1.6 million has been collected from the Sector for Control and Investigation in this case, and Criminal charges have been filed with the BPPO Skopje against two legal entities and two natural persons.
– We apply a comprehensive approach to preventing crime. We reinforce all capacities both inside and at border crossings and those most frequented and those with the lowest traffic, preventing attempts at smuggling. Last at the GP Pelince, when there is no memory of a crime report for years, an attempt to smuggle gold and silver worth 2.4 million denars (39 thousand euros) has been prevented. In this way we will continue to act in the future coordinated and even stronger in order to capture the perpetrators and create conditions for a safer society as the foundation for a sustainable economy – emphasized the director Nikolovski.
