”A truck with Greek Cypriot licence plates containing smuggled fruit and vegetables worth €3,800 was confiscated and the produced destroyed by customs officials at the Ayios Dhometios checkpoint on Thursday... the 342 cases containing fruit and vegetables such as tomatoes and red peppers, as well as the truck carrying the foods were prohibited from crossing... In line with the Green Line Regulations, the transportation of such an amount of perishable goods across the buffer zone requires a document issued by the Turkish Cypriot chamber of commerce and industry, which the driver did not have”. [Cyprus Mail].
Well that raises further questions. So “such an amount” requires special paperwork. Can see that one couldn’t reasonably argue it was for personal consumption, even given a predilection for canning, but is there a particular legal limit - say twenty kilos? They’ve seemed pretty uninterested during cursory checks of the trunk after our trips to Famagusta market. We could actually have had bottles of whisky under the veg in the trolley without anyone noticing. Although since most alcohol is cheaper in the south there’s been more than honesty preventing us. Does seem a shame to have destroyed that much good food. [Photo: Cyprus Mail]
But this same week an airport police officer was arrested at Larnaca airport and charged with theft - which resulted from not having destroyed confiscated goods. Well, more or less. He was found attempting to take abroad for resale (and apparently not for the first time) a suitcase filled with goods “such as mobile phones, tablets, perfumes, sunglasses, jewellery and alcoholic beverages that had been confiscated from passengers during security checks”. This also raises other questions. Such as why the items had been confiscated in the first place. OK, alcohol from non-EU countries, and maybe very expensive jewellery. Phones and tablets? Maybe with porn. Sunglasses? Or were these, like the veg, taken from people who’d brought them in in commercial quantities? Apparently goods confiscated at the airport are meant to be destroyed or stored. Stored where, and for how long, and to what end? Inquiring minds want to know.