12 February 2009 :: Archive 2009 :: Press releases :: News & Events

BELGRADE, February 12th  – A complex investigation, involving the Serbian and Hungarian Customs Administrations, with the support of the SECI Regional Center for Combating Transborder Crime revealed a 1,7 million euros fraud, damaging the budgets of the two countries,  and stopped the smuggling of textiles from Hungary to Serbia. The one-year long Operation “Cotton” proved the extraordinary cooperation of customs authorities in Southeast Europe. The results of the investigation were presented during a common press conference, organized at the Serbian Customs Administration headquarters.

“We are very satisfied with the results achieved and we believe that this joint action of the Serbian and Hungarian customs authorities on prevention of smuggling of goods represents the beginning of an even more successful cooperation in combating customs offences. This is also a message to the citizens that the Customs Administration has been protecting all the Serbian society’s structures from different kinds of challenges, either economical or safety ones.”, Predrag Petronijević, General Director of the Serbian Customs Administration has underlined and added that “the policy of open, but secure borders shall be continued in the future”.

The case was initiated at the beginning of 2008 by the Serbian Customs Administration who had information about a possible fraud regarding textile goods imported from Hungary.  The suspicions arose regarding the origin, customs value and quantity. All the information exchange between Serbia and Hungary was done using the secure communication system of the SECI Center, who also organized three meetings of the case investigators who planned the operation.

“The Serbian part asked us for the Hungarian export documentation in order to prove the frauds and those documents were duly delivered, based upon the SECI Agreements”, Lieutenant-General JánosNagy Dr, Commissioner of the Hungarian Customs and Financial Guard has stated.

During the “Cotton” operation, 52 administrative offence claims were filed against Serbian companies, which were taking over various textile goods from the Free Zone in Szeged, importing them undeclared or falsely declared to Serbia.

Mitja Močnik, Director of the SECI Center has congratulated the teams of customs authorities of Serbia and Hungary for the “spectacular results they achieved, working together and sharing valuable information”. Miloš Oparnica, Head of International Police Cooperation Department within the Criminal Police Sector has stressed out that the “SECI Center, as a regional organization, is a unique example of the cooperation of customs and police authorities, where the information are being exchanged and the joint actions coordinated, on daily basis“.