Customs Agency director Emil Dimitrov will hand over 18 cases of smuggling to prosecutors. He made the announcement after meeting with Prosecutor General Nikola Filchev and other top prosecutors on Friday. Dimitrov said they did not discuss particular cases.

All the cases involve the smuggling of foods and industrial goods, and no charities are involved, the customs director said. He added he believed the information he held was enough for the initiation of preliminary investigations.

"On the initiative of Nikola Filchev, the working group that is now in charge of coordinating the work of the institutions, will grow into a council," Dimitrov said.

Dimitrov also told the press about a check on Thursday into an incident early this year at the Kulata checkpoint, on the border with Greece, where two trucks left the country empty and returned loaded with goods without being checked by the customs inspectors. The truck drivers were entered in the registers as people crossing the border on foot.

In their written reports on the incident, the customs officers who were in charge wrote that they were diligently performing their duties, but at the moment the two trucks crossed the border, they were distracted by something and did not even notice them. "A preliminary investigation is underway but I face the hard question of whether I should sack the whole shift or only individual customs inspectors," said Dimitrov.

Money coming from customs duties grew by 15 per cent last month, according to the customs agency director. This is the result of the work of six mobile teams who are checking cargo vehicles inside the country.

A strategy for charging duty for high-risk and excise goods is yet to be presented to the finance minister. If approved, it will become effective within two or three weeks, Dimitrov said. The strategy provides for two ways of charging customs duty - one is upon entry into the country and the other is at four or five centres which will be set up inside the country.