Haskovo Regional Court has accepted the prosecutor's request to step aside from the case against M.V.B., director of the Plovdiv Territorial Directorate, and put off the preliminary hearing to 18 December at 1:30pm, the court said.

M.V.B. is on trial for abuse of power over a truck carrying cigarettes that was diverted for inspection at the Kapitan Andreevo customs post. The court said yesterday that it would hear the case today.

See also: Plovdiv customs chief on trial over truck with cigarettes

Today, 6 November 2026, the court opened the hearing and heard both sides. The state prosecutor asked to withdraw and gave his reasons. The court panel said a prosecutor's withdrawal is his personal decision and the court cannot review it.

The court will now ask the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office to name another prosecutor. The case is a criminal case of a general nature, brought on that office's indictment.

Prosecutors say M.V.B. acted beyond his powers and outside his territorial jurisdiction. On 17 April 2025, they say, he asked a unit head at the Kapitan Andreevo customs post in Svilengrad municipality to hand over the truck, a tractor unit with a trailer. Prosecutors say the vehicle was to travel under customs escort, with chief inspectors from the Plovdiv Customs Territorial Directorate in an official car, to the post at Vidin. From there it was to be taken out of Bulgaria.

The truck was travelling from Georgia to the Netherlands. On 12 April 2025 it was diverted for a joint check by officers of the Customs Agency and the Border Police Directorate General of the Interior Ministry. This followed information from the EU anti-fraud office OLAF about the movement of high-risk goods.

The load was 1,400 master boxes of "MATADOR COMPACT" cigarettes. Each box holds 50 blocks of 10 packs, and each pack has 20 cigarettes.

Prosecutors say the company S.S.K.S would have gained from the escort, because it would not have paid the full excise duty. The duty could have arisen as the goods moved, including through EU countries the truck passes through in transit. The possible loss to the state is €1,492,461 (2,919,000 leva), or about €1.49m.

The offence is classified under Article 282, paragraph 2, read with paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code. The law sets a penalty of one to eight years in prison. The court can also ban the person from holding a certain state or public post.