Newsroom
More than 300 kilograms of beef in the boot of a car is hardly an ordinary shopping run. At the Agios Dometios crossing, the discovery reportedly led to the arrest of a retired Turkish lieutenant general.
The man, identified only by the initials B.M., is a former commander of Turkish forces stationed in the occupied north, according to Turkish Cypriot newspaper Yeni Bakis.
He was returning from the government-controlled areas to the north, where he lives in Kyrenia, when his vehicle was searched at the Turkish Cypriot checkpoint.
Inside, officers reportedly found 305.4 kilograms of boneless beef and another 41 kilograms of lamb tail fat, a combined load of more than a third of a tonne.
The goods, allegedly being smuggled across the crossing, were valued at 411,370 Turkish lira, approximately €7,472. They were seized as evidence, and B.M. was arrested at the scene, the newspaper reported.
He subsequently appeared before a court in the occupied north and was released subject to several conditions.
These included a ban on leaving the occupied north, a cash bail of 80,000 Turkish lira, and a guarantee of 600,000 lira signed by two guarantors. He must also report to a police station once a week.
According to Yeni Bakis, this was not his first arrest over an alleged attempt to move undeclared goods. The newspaper reported that he had previously been arrested while trying to take three suitcases of tobacco through the VIP section of Tymbou airport.
The report did not specify the outcome of that earlier case or where the meat discovered at Agios Dometios was intended to go.
