Kosovo police cracks down on customs, six arrested for corruption

Sep 11, 2008, 9:41 GMT

Pristina, Kosovo - Kosovo police said Thursday it has arrested the customs deputy director and five other customs officials suspected of allowing organized crime to smuggle vast amounts of fuel.

Also arrested was a businessman who allegedly bribed the officials into allowing his fuel tankers to pass without paying duty.

'The officials were arrested for abusing their position, for accepting bribes and bribing others ... in complicity of organized crime,' police spokesman Veton Elshani told reporters.

The arrested customs employees operated on Kosovo's main border pass toward Macedonia. They are suspected of inflicting damage to the state adminIstration of almost 1 million euros (1.4 million dollars).

It was the first arrest of a criminal chain within the Kosovo customs service, though it is common knowledge that the border is very porous for smugglers of everything.

Hinting at a crackdown, Elshani said 'more arrests are expected.'

Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February and was recognized by nearly 50 countries, including leading western nations, remains plagued by organized crime.

A report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe chastised Kosovo's courts as unable to stand up to the powerful organized crime, which controls the international smuggling of drugs, human beings and non-declared goods across the territory.