Ljuba and Aleksinac: 47,490 Cigarette Packs in One Day
In a single day, police arrested two people over excise goods: 37,500 cigarette packs at the Ljuba border crossing, and near Aleksinac another 9,990 packs plus 30,000 hand rolled cigarettes.
Serbia’s Interior Ministry (MUP) announced that on Monday, September 1, it arrested two people in two separate operations against the illegal trade in excise goods: one at the border with Croatia, the other on the highway near Aleksinac.
Hidden trailer at the border
At the Ljuba border crossing, on the way out of Serbia, officers from the Criminal Police Directorate and the Anti-Corruption Service, working with the Border Police Directorate, arrested D.S. (26) on suspicion of smuggling.
Searching the truck the suspect was driving, police found 37,500 cigarette packs without excise stamps hidden in a modified section of the trailer. Their market value was estimated at 8,850,000 dinars. D.S. was held for up to 48 hours and will be brought before the competent prosecutor’s office along with a criminal complaint.
Highway stop near Aleksinac
That same day, during a vehicle check on the Belgrade-Nis highway near Aleksinac, police arrested N.P. (38), from Belgrade, born in 1988, on suspicion of illegal trade in excise goods. The operation was carried out by the Criminal Police Directorate, the Crime Suppression Service, the Economic Crime Department, and officers from the Nis Police Department, working with the Tax Police.
Police found and seized 9,990 cigarette packs and 30,000 hand rolled cigarettes from N.P., none of them bearing excise stamps. According to MUP, this cost the Serbian state budget around 2,850,000 dinars in unpaid excise duty, a figure that reflects lost tax revenue rather than the market value of the goods, so it is not directly comparable to the value of the seizure at Ljuba. N.P. was held for up to 48 hours and will be brought before the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Aleksinac along with a criminal complaint.
Reporting on the case also produced a discrepancy in the numbers: Tanjug’s headline cited 9,900 cigarette packs, while the body of its report, like the MUP statement itself, gave the figure as 9,990.
Added together, MUP seized 47,490 cigarette packs without excise stamps in the two operations that day, plus the 30,000 hand rolled cigarettes taken near Aleksinac.
MUP says its crackdown on smuggling continues, with a particular focus on cigarettes, oil, and oil derivatives.
