ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A network that smuggled hundreds of millions of dinars worth of goods into the Kurdistan Region through a border crossing has been uncovered, the Kurdistan Region's finance ministry announced on Sunday night, with an official confirming to Rudaw that it took place at the Parvizkhan crossing at the Iran border.
The network committed "fraud and smuggling worth hundreds of millions of dinars, and damaged public finance," the ministry said, which included creating fake documents to authorise the movement of goods through crossings.
"As part of efforts made by the Ministry of Economy and Finance to control crossings to prevent fraudsters who break the law and commit fraud with disregard for public interest, we managed to reveal a fraud and smuggling network, with the help of the KRG's General Directorate of Customs and the Sulaimani Customs Directorate," read a statement from the ministry.
"There is absolute coordination between the court and directorate of finance monitoring department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance...the public prosecutor is working on this case and administrative and legal measures are being taken," the statement added.
The ministry did not specify how many people were involved in the network.
There are three official Kurdistan Region-Iran border crossings – Haji Omaran in Erbil province, Parvizkhan in Garmiyan administration and Bashmakh in Sulaimani province – as well as many other unofficial border points.
Shakhawan Bakir, in charge of Bashmakh, told Rudaw English on Monday that the experienced "technical staff" at his crossing had worked together with government teams to discover that the network was operating at Parvizkhan.
Even those in charge of Parvizkhan have previously acknowledged illegal movement of goods through the crossing "on a daily basis".
"Eighty percent of the crossing's trade revenues end up with the companies, not the government," director of Parvizkhan crossing Aso Qadir told Rudaw last month, with everything from onions to old vehicles smuggled through the border.
Parvizkhan is not the only Kurdistan Region crossing to suffer from the illegal movement goods, with Ali Hama Salih, a member of the Kurdistan Region's parliament from the Change Movement (Gorran) telling Rudaw that "embezzlement and looting take place at the Kurdistan Region's border crossings" – with security forces complicit in the crime.
"All kinds of expired goods are imported into the Kurdistan Region through smuggling networks that have offices inside the cities of the Kurdistan Region, with the help of the security forces," the outspoken MP said.
"I have handed in all the evidence which contains the name and address of the parties involved in the smuggling [to the government]," he added.
