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New high-performance surveillance equipment donated by BAT Romania to the Romanian Border Police

19 October 2023

On Thursday, 19.10.2023, in Calafat, the representatives of BAT Romania donated state-of-the-art equipment to the Border Police structures that support the strengthening of the state border surveillance system and the increase of the operational capacity of intervention: target monitoring systems, respectively vehicles (vehicle number plate recognition cameras) and thermal imaging surveillance devices (thermal imaging binoculars and information recording and transmission capabilities). The equipment represents a real support through which BAT contributes to strengthening the operational capacity of the Romanian authorities, both for the current situation and the future, when Romania will be part of the Schengen area. Also, 4 containers were donated for the storage of confiscated cigarettes in Giurgiu and Calafat, given that, in the southern part of the country, the amount of confiscated cigarettes increased 5 times this year compared to the same period last year, according to the data centralized on stopcontrabanda.ro platform.

Present at the official announcement of the equipment donation, Chief Police Commissioner Viorel Vlăsceanu, Chief Inspector of the Territorial Inspectorate of the Giurgiu Border Police, said: "Countering this phenomenon is a priority and a permanent objective of the Romanian Border Police, both through own institutional measures, as well as through collaboration with other state structures and representatives of the civil society. In the first nine months of this year, at the southern border of Romania, the border police seized for confiscation approximately 1.9 million packages of cigarettes, representing over 35% of the total seizures at national level".

On the same topic, Mrs. Ileana Dumitru, Legal and External Affairs Director of the South Eastern Europe Area, BAT, stated: "We are glad that once again we support the authorities and specifically the Romanian Border Police in their activity at the southern border, where contraband seizures have increased significantly recently. Thus, we directly contribute to strengthening their capacity in combating illicit traffic by providing border monitoring and surveillance technique to reduce cigarette smuggling, a phenomenon that affects us all: consumers, the state budget and fair companies".

Adding to the prejudices to the state budget, illegal cigarette trafficking fuels other criminal activities, with a cross-border dimension, including organized crime.

At the national level, in the first nine months of this year, the border police officers seized more than 3.47 million packages of contraband cigarettes, worth approximately 63.3 million lei, and more than 27 tons of tobacco and hookah. As compared to the same period of 2022, a doubling of the number of confiscated cigarette packs has been registered.

Practically, approximately 65% of the entire quantity of contraband cigarettes confiscated at the national level is the result of the actions of the Romanian Border Police. As a result of them, in the same period, several criminal groups specialized in the manufacturing and illegal sale of counterfeit cigarettes were identified and destroyed on the country's territory. In order to prosecute those who were involved in illegal acts, the border police registered 337 crimes for smuggling and customs fraud.

In order to maintain the trend, we will continue to adapt our missions, dynamically and in close collaboration with all involved factors.

Thus, at the level of the Romanian Border Police, a series of measures were identified and set in order to prevent and combat the phenomenon. These consist in strengthening of border surveillance devices, the intensification of informative-operational actions and the investigation of registered cases, in order to detect smuggling networks with cigarettes, thorough documentation of the activities to be carried out, the establishment of risk areas, the tasks and responsibilities of the forces involved, the methods and times of action in order to make the operational missions carried out more efficient.

Efforts to reduce the phenomenon of illegal trafficking will continue as sustained, in collaboration with all the state institutions with capacities to combat smuggling, namely the Romanian Police and the Romanian Customs Authority, under the coordination of prosecutors from the competent prosecutor's offices.

Equally, we highlight the collaboration with cigarette manufacturers who, through the partnerships concluded, also contributed to the development of the prevention segment of this phenomenon, with several national and regional public campaigns to raise awareness of the negative effects of the illegal cigarettes trade.