INDICTMENT ISSUED FOR SMUGGLING OF CIGARETTES WORTH 1.15 MILLION BAM

The accused Mevljudin Kalač (1977) from Montenegro is charged with smuggling, in a cargo motor vehicle from Montenegro to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a large quantity of cigarettes which were intended for the illegal tobacco market.

A Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued an Indictment against the following person:

-           Mevljudin Kalač, born in 1977 in Rožaje, a citizen of Montenegro, who is remanded in custody.

The accused is charged with smuggling, from Montenegro to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a large quantity of cigarettes that were not registered in the customs documentation, on 20 February 2021. The cigarettes were hidden in a truck loaded with secondary paper raw materials, which he drove from the direction of Montenegro to a final destination in the Republic of Croatia.

When the truck entered Bosnia and Herzegovina, authorized officers of the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina escorted it to the customs terminal in Sarajevo, where specialist equipment was used to scan and inspect its cargo and 292,499 packs of cigarettes were discovered, with the estimated market value of 1,149,872.07 BAM.

The cigarettes were seized, and the accused was deprived of liberty and he has been in custody ever since.

This seizure is one of the largest seizures of smuggled cigarettes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The aforementioned accused is charged with moving across the customs line goods of higher value while avoiding measures of customs control, whereby he committed the criminal offense of Smuggling of Goods, referred to in Article 214, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Indictment has been forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for confirmation.