Customs services of the EAEU countries agreed on an action plan to combat smuggling for 2011

September 30, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovets - BELTA /. Customs services of the Customs Union countries have agreed on a joint action plan to combat smuggling for 2011. This was announced today by Vasily Dementey, Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus, at a joint meeting of the commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia for Security, Defense and Crime Prevention and representatives of the Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies, legislative bodies of the Pskov and Smolensk regions in Vitebsk, reports BELTA correspondent. The agreement was reached at a working meeting of the heads of customs agencies of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, which took place on September 29 in Moscow. "At the meeting, we worked out issues of organizing interaction in the law enforcement sphere of the customs services of the three countries and approved a plan for relevant joint measures," said Vasily Dementey. Holding such working meetings on a permanent basis ensures the proper level of interaction between customs services in combating smuggling, he added. According to the representative of the State Customs Committee, security in the customs sphere is ensured by conducting operational-search work to identify smuggling channels for goods supply, mutual exchange of operational information between customs of adjacent regions of Belarus and Russia, and its joint implementation. As an example of effective cooperation between Belarusian and Russian customs officers, he cited the recent liquidation of a smuggling channel for batches of clothing and footwear of Polish production, imported into the territory of the Union of Belarus and Russia under the guise of building materials. Belarusian customs officers identified this fact in the Brest region, imported clothing and footwear worth $660,000 were seized from illegal circulation, and a criminal case was initiated. According to Belarusian customs officers, their Russian counterparts have already detained a batch of similar goods worth more than 1.5 million Russian rubles in Moscow. A criminal case has also been initiated for smuggling. In addition to operational-search activities, technical means of customs control are actively used to detect smuggling. Thus, 5 mobile scanning units are operating in the Belarusian section of the external border, controlling imported goods and vehicles. Security is largely ensured by a risk analysis and management system that allows for targeted customs control operations on cargo flows. In addition, in 2010, a situational analysis center was created at the State Customs Committee, which provides centralized operational control over the situation at the border in real-time. The canine service of the State Customs Committee specializes in preventing the spread of drugs, and its staff is planned to be expanded to 60 cynologists and 77 service dogs in 2011. -0-