ArmenPress
June 29 2004

ARMENIAN CUSTOMS OFFICER PREVENT SMUGGLING OF 201,000 FAKE EXCISE
STAMPS

YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS: In close cooperation with their
Georgian counterparts Armenian customs officials prevented an attempt
of smuggling around 201,000 fake excise stamps into the country.
Gevorg Safarian, head of a customs service department, said today
that the stamps were discovered on June 15 in a Turkish Mercedes bus
bound for Armenia at a border checkpoint on border with Georgia. The
stamps for strong alcoholic drinks were printed in Turkey.
The driver of the bus, a Turkish citizen Sayid Aygun, said a
friend in Turkish city of Trabzon asked him to hand over the stamps,
hidden in two boxes, to a Yerevan resident Arsen, saying that the
boxes contained shirt labels. The driver was given the telephone
number of Arsen to get in touch. Aygun claimed he learned what the
boxes had only when his bus was checked by Armenian customs officers.
Safarian said prosecutors have arrested Arsen and are making
investigation into the case. He said the damages that the government
could sustain if the faked stamps were not revealed could amount to
more than 1000 million Drams.