Customs officers confiscated a shipment of smartphones at Sochi Airport.

In the airport of Sochi, customs officers confiscated a batch of smartphones. During the customs control, the employees of the Sochi Airport Customs Post of the Krasnodar Customs discovered a commercial batch of the latest model smartphones in the passenger’s hand luggage. The passenger arrived on a flight from Dubai to Sochi and passed through the «green corridor» without submitting a passenger customs declaration or seeking information on the procedure for moving goods across the customs border of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). When asked about the goods subject to declaration, the passenger responded negatively. During the inspection of his hand luggage using X-ray television equipment, a large number of homogeneous items were found. Further inspection of the passenger’s sports bag among his personal belongings revealed 18 smartphones in boxes. The 27-year-old man explained that he purchased the phones in Dubai as gifts for his relatives, but he couldn’t remember the cost and did not provide purchase receipts. Based on the quantity and nature of the goods, a decision was made not to classify the discovered phones as goods for personal use. Two administrative offense cases were initiated against the man under Article 16.2, Part 1 «Failure to declare goods subject to customs declaration in the prescribed form» and Article 16.3 «Violation of prohibitions and/or restrictions» of the Administrative Offenses Code of the Russian Federation. The batch of smartphones was confiscated, and an administrative investigation is underway.