Deputy Customs Chief Caught With 17,500 Marked Euros: He Was Selling Influence in Two Cases

A deputy director of the Customs Administration has been arrested after being caught taking 17,500 euros in pre-marked notes. This was not an anonymous tip or a suspicion - the man was caught with the cash in his hands, in an operation by the Interior Ministry's organised and serious crime unit, coordinated by a prosecutor from the office for organised crime and corruption.

According to the prosecution's initial findings, the money was demanded as a bribe so that the official would use his "real influence" in two proceedings before the Customs Administration and allegedly help things along. That phrase is worth reading twice. Real influence. Not authority, not a signature - influence. Which is to say, something that gets sold.

Earlier information released by the authorities identifies him as the deputy head of the administration department, who asked for a bribe in connection with a Customs tender. When he took the money, he ignored police orders and fled. Police caught him.

Customs, again

The Customs Administration is where the state touches every container, every truck and every company that imports anything. When influence is for sale there, the price is not paid only by whoever handed over the bribe - it is paid by every competitor who would not or could not pay, and so lost the tender, lost time, or simply walked away.

Which is exactly why the 17,500 euros is not the number that should interest us most. What matters more is that a man existed who believed he could charge for influence in two proceedings at once, and who clearly was not too worried about consequences while pocketing marked notes. That is not the confidence of one individual - it is the confidence of someone who has watched this kind of thing go unpunished.

Once the case is fully documented, a criminal complaint will be filed with the organised crime prosecutor's office. Prosecutors say they will release details later.

The arrest is good news. The next piece of good news will be if the investigation does not stop at the man who ran down the street with marked cash, but goes upward - to the question of who told him this was possible in the first place.