Bulgaria, Germany, Netherlands to intercept illegal refrigerants

March 11, 2019

Latest news from the scene of battles against smuggled and stolen refrigerants.

BULGARIA: Customs officers in Lesovo have followed up the seizure of nearly 1000 cylinders of R22 refrigerant last week with a further interception of smuggled refrigerant on Saturday.

The Lesovo border checkpoint stopped a lorry coming into the country from Turkey. The documentation said the load was 24,000kg of wooden pellets for heating but, when inspected, the lorry was found to be carrying cylinders of refrigerant and plant pesticides. The value of the load was estimated at BGN400,000 (€205,000).

The customs authority refused to reveal the refrigerant concerned or the amount.

GERMANY: Police suspect that 90 cylinders of R134a that spilled onto the A4 autobahn near Dresden following an accident may have been stolen.

The accident on Tuesday morning involving a Mercedes Sprinter resulted in the temporary closure of the motorway between Nossen and Wilsdruff, west of Dresden, after some of the cylinders fell on the road.

Police say the driver, a 28-year-old Polish national, could not provide a plausible explanation for the origin of the approximately 90 13.6kg cylinders. The police suspect some of the cylinders may have came from a theft from a business in Bodenbacher Straße, Dresden Seidnitz. The thieves cut a hole in a fence and stole 18 cylinders of refrigerant with a total value of around €9,000.

NETHERLANDS: A raid on a car parts warehouse in Rotterdam has netted authorities over 1600kg of illegal R134a refrigerant.

The Netherland’s Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate, working on a tip-off from Dutch customs authorities, discovered 123 13.6kg cylinders that had been imported outside of the EU quota system and in illegal disposable cylinders.

The refrigerant has been seized and the authorities are said to be seeking the whereabouts of a further 477 cylinders from the same trader.