The sale of cut tobacco and tobacco products was controlled throughout the country from February 2013 until February 2014.

“We carried out controls independently and in coordination with the tax administration and community policing. We carried 5,000 inspections in total, and in 930 cases we found irregularities”, said the Head of the Department for General Supervision of the Market Inspection Goran Macura to the daily newspaper Politika.

He added that, during these controls, the inspectors encountered 240 people who were selling cut tobacco and various related accessories without authorization. They confiscated 3,000 pounds of cut tobacco, 5,750 packages of cigarette rolling paper, 243 machines for rolling and 38,917 packs of cigarettes.

“We filed offense reports, and we noticed that lately sellers of illegal cut tobacco started to make contact by telephone with their regular customers and then bring the tobacco to an agreed location. We also controlled e-commerce of cut tobacco on six websites and took down 76 advertisements”, explained Macura.