A joint operation against illegal trade with excisable goods was carried out by the National Revenue Agency (NRA) and the Bulgarian Customs Agency (BCA) in cooperation with the National Service for Combating Organised Crime. The Crown Agents assisted with planning and implementation of the two-week long exercise.

Teams of the National Revenue Agency and the Mobile Assurance Teams of the BCA made examinations of 80 retail outlets and warehouses for excisable goods in 13 regions of the country – Dobrich, Russe, Sofia-city, Sofia-region, Montana, Omurtag, Shumen, Stara Zagora, Blagoevgrad, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas and Smolyan. The targets for examination were selected by experts from the NRA on the basis of the available records for past violations. The teams inspected the documentation of these objects and checked the type and availability of excise labels on the commodities stored there.

9 main types of violations were detected:

- Tobacco products without excise labels (Cigarettes – 148 800 pieces, Cigars – 2500 pieces);

- Spirits without excise labels (272 bottles);
- Spirits with excise labels, which are suspected to be fake (4431 bottles);

- Spirits with “Duty Free” excise labels (48 bottles);

- Spirits with old excise labels (870 bottles);

- Seized fake excise labels (1600 pieces);

- Spirits with excise labels for different alcohol degree than that shown on the label of the bottle (30 bottles);

- Spirits in plastic bottles (500 litres);

- Irregular documentation of the process for production of spirits (3 companies).