Podgorica, (MINA) – Cigarette smuggling no longer enjoys institutional protection, said Deputy Prime Minister Momo Koprivica, stating that more than 138,000 packs of seized cigarettes were destroyed in the second half of last year.

According to Koprivica, the Government has proved with the last stage of the destruction of confiscated tobacco that the fight against smuggling is not merely declarative, but real and substantive.

Koprivica explained that the confiscated tobacco from the Free Zone of the Port of Bar and the Zetatrans warehouse in Podgorica was destroyed.

“On this occasion, 8,227 packs of cigarettes, 105 boxes of cigarettes and 262 kg of cut tobacco were destroyed. The value of the tobacco on the black market could have exceeded EUR 10 million”, said Koprivica.

Koprivica recalled that from June 23 to September 16 last year, 130,003 packs of cigarettes, 526 packs of cut tobacco, 1,134 packs of hookah tobacco and six packs of electronic cigarettes were destroyed.

“A total of 138,230 packs of cigarettes were destroyed in this procedure based on the Government’s Decision on the destruction of tobacco, which is a record amount in one procedure in Europe”, said Koprivica.

He further emphasized that this is the first fully fulfilled obligation from negotiation chapters 23 and 24.

“The entire destruction procedure, as well as the first phase carried out last summer, was continuously recorded in order to ensure full transparency and credibility, and the hard drive with the video material is kept in the Customs Administration as part of the official documentation” stated Koprivica.

Koprivica added that the final stage of the destruction procedure was fully monitored on site by the monitoring mission of EUROL 4.