Customs officials confiscated more than 100,000KM worth of illegal gold this week when they interrupted an attempt to smuggle jewelry across the Pavlovica bridge border crossing, the Indirect Taxation Authority said on Monday.
Two Serbian citizens coming from Sabac were bringing some 328 pieces of jewelry across the border into Bosnia Herzegovina in a Mercedes S-Class 320 TDI when officials performed a detailed inspection and found the watches, necklaces, and bracelets hidden in the car.
Both passengers pleaded guilty to customs offenses and paid 20,000 KM in fines.
According to the ITA, this stash likely represents a tiny portion of the gold smuggled into BiH each year. They suspect a larger influx because customs records and jewelery stores' inventories are conspicuously mismatched.
In 2011, 6 million KM worth of gold was legally imported into the country, and the first half of 2012 saw 2.7 million KM worth, according to Ratko Kovacevic, a spokesperson for the ITA.
“Compared to the number of jeweller’s shops in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we find this quantity of the imported gold and gold jewelry too small,“ Kovacevic said Friday.