Bulgaria stops 1620kg of refrigerant
8th February 2025
BULGARIA: Customs officers from the district of Rousse in Bulgaria have stopped an attempt to smuggle 1620kg of refrigerant at the border with Romania.
The truck, driven by a Bulgarian national, was stopped on the ring road of the city Vidin on the approach to the Vidin to Calafat bridge crossing to Romania.
Also known as New Europe Bridge or Danube Bridge 2, the international bridge is a key road and rail link between Bulgaria and Romania, spanning the Danube as part of Pan-European Corridor IV from Dresden to lstanbul.
The driver of the truck provided the customs officers with four bills of lading for groupage cargo. On the basis of a “risk analysis”, the customs inspectors diverted the vehicle to the Customs Office-Vidin for an X-ray inspection, during which areas of unusual density were identified.
When opening the cartons, which, according to the documents, contained “chains for transport machines”, actually concealed refrigerant cylinders totalling 1620kg.
The Bulgarian authorities have not revealed what refrigerants were in the shipment but, from the photographs, at least some of it was R407C.
