Milan Bojanić charged with cigarette smuggling

The Prosecutor of the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH has filed an indictment against: Milan Bojanić, born on 05/25/1960 in Obrovac, municipality of Banja Luka, residing in Banja Luka, a citizen of BiH, reports the Patria News Agency.

The accused is charged with illegally marketing and selling cigarettes that were not marked with control and tax stamps as prescribed by the tax legislation of BiH, and with transporting goods of significant value across the customs line, avoiding customs control measures, from May to September 2015.

 

According to the indictment, the accused made a hidden compartment in a previously purchased car in which he hid cigarettes that he picked up in the territory of Montenegro with Montenegrin tax stamps and without tax stamps, in order to avoid border police control measures at the border crossing between Montenegro and BiH.

The accused transported the smuggled cigarettes to Banja Luka, where he kept them in his family home for further marketing in BiH and in other countries, selling some of the cigarettes in BiH, while transporting the remaining cigarettes in the hidden compartment to the Republic of Slovenia, where he sold them.

The accused Bojanić was apprehended in October this year while transporting cigarettes to the Republic of Croatia at the Bosanska Gradiška border crossing, where approximately 2,400 packs of Marlboro, Merlin – slim, Monte, Bond, Eva slims, Marlboro light, and Merlin-slims blue cigarettes were found and confiscated, as well as some cigarettes he kept in his own house, thereby damaging the budget of BiH by avoiding the payment of excise duties.

The accused is charged with committing the criminal offense of illegal trade in excise products and smuggling. The indictment has been forwarded to the Court of BiH for confirmation, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH announced.