The Burgas District Court has remanded in custody Georgian Levan Gelashvili, who is accused of smuggling over 3.5 million cigarettes, BNT reported.
The shipment of illegal goods was seized in a truck that docked at the Burgas port with the Druzhba ferry from Batumi on Monday. A total of 180,000 boxes of cigarettes were hidden in foam rolls, declared as mattresses. The value of the contraband is nearly 750,000 euros.
Levan Gelashvili is a truck driver, in whose cargo customs officers found the cigarettes. According to the defendant's lawyer, however, the goods did not concern the Georgian citizen, as they were sealed. The defense stated in the courtroom that the driver did not have access to the cargo.
Nevertheless, the court imposed the most severe measure of “detention in custody“, with one of the main reasons being the real risk that he would abscond before the start of the case, due to the lack of an address in Bulgaria.
If found guilty, Levan Gelashvili could receive a prison sentence of 3 to 10 years.