Smuggling is the act of illegally bringing goods and products into our country through unlawful means in order to evade or completely avoid paying customs duties, and selling them in the domestic market. Additionally, it is considered smuggling to illegally produce tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, and fuels outside the regulations, as well as engaging in unauthorized trade of our cultural/natural assets by taking them out of the country.
Smuggling Offenses: Smuggling offenses and penalties are regulated in the Law on Smuggling No. 5607. The main smuggling offenses include:
Bringing goods into the country without subjecting them to customs procedures, Bringing goods into the country by deceptive acts without partially or fully paying customs duties, Leaving goods that are not in free circulation under the transit regime in the customs territory in violation of the regime provisions, Treating goods brought into the country within the temporary importation or inward processing regime for a specific purpose as if they have been taken out of the country with fraud, Acquiring, offering for sale, selling, transporting, or storing smuggled goods knowingly and for commercial purposes, Allocating, selling, transferring, or knowingly acquiring goods imported with partial or complete exemption from customs duties under special laws for purposes other than importation, Bringing goods into the country that are prohibited by law to be imported, knowingly purchasing, offering for sale, selling, transporting, or storing them, Taking goods out of the country that are prohibited to be exported by law, Falsely representing exports that have not actually taken place for the purpose of benefiting from incentives, subsidies, or monetary refunds, or altering the type, quantity, characteristics, or price of goods subject to the export, even though the export has been realized, Producing, possessing, or transporting, or knowingly purchasing for commercial purposes, energy products other than motor fuels that are subject to national marker application and contain national markers below the level determined by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority, Producing or supplying, offering for sale, selling, possessing, knowingly purchasing for commercial purposes, transporting, or storing solvents, mineral oils, base oils, asphalt, and similar petroleum products other than motor fuels without obtaining permission from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority or declaring them as direct substitutes for motor fuels, Possessing fixed or mobile tanks, equipment, or devices in violation of the ones specified in the documents constituting the license in a manner that facilitates obtaining illegal motor fuels or counterfeit national markers, Illegally producing, offering for sale, selling, purchasing from unauthorized persons, accepting from unauthorized persons, transporting, or possessing national markers, Producing counterfeits of banderoles, labels, holograms, stamps, or similar signs applied by public institutions on the packaging of tobacco products, macaroni, cigarette papers, ethyl alcohol, methanol, and alcoholic beverages, and knowingly possessing, transporting, selling, or using them, Producing, possessing, or transporting tobacco products, macaroni, cigarette papers, ethyl alcohol, methanol, and alcoholic beverages that do not have banderoles, labels, holograms, stamps, or similar signs on their packaging, or that carry counterfeit or misleading ones, knowingly purchasing for commercial purposes, or selling, or knowingly and for commercial purposes acquiring them, Engaging in tobacco trade without obtaining a license or making a declaration, and selling, offering for sale, possessing, or transporting macaroni or cigarette papers filled with shredded tobacco, fragmented tobacco, or any substance other than tobacco for commercial purposes, Aggravating Factors: The goods constituting the subject of smuggling offenses being petroleum products, tobacco, tobacco products, macaroni, cigarette papers, ethyl alcohol, methanol, and alcoholic beverages, The value of the goods constituting the subject of smuggling offenses being excessive, Smuggling offenses being committed within the framework of the activities of an organization, Smuggling offenses being committed by three or more persons jointly, Smuggling offenses being committed by taking advantage of individuals who are responsible for preventing, monitoring, investigating, and prosecuting smuggling, or exploiting the ease provided by their profession or trade, The goods constituting the subject of the smuggling offense having the potential to disrupt the political, economic, or military security of the State or threaten the environment or public health, Concurrence: According to the fifth paragraph of Article 4 of the Law on Smuggling No. 5607, in case smuggling offenses are committed by forging an official document, separate penalties shall also be imposed for the offense of forging an official document or a private document.
Attempt: According to Article 21 of the Law No. 5607 on Smuggling, even if the acts of smuggling specified in the law remain in the stage of attempt, they will be punished as completed offenses.
Effective Repentance: A person who has participated in smuggling crimes shall not be punished if, before the official authorities become aware of the incident, they provide information about the act, other perpetrators, and the places where the smuggled goods are hidden, and if the provided information leads to the capture of the perpetrators or the seizure of the smuggled goods. However, if the information is provided after it is already known to the authorities, the person who assists in the disclosure of the entire act will receive a reduced sentence.
A person who has committed one of the smuggling offenses, except for the offense of importing goods prohibited by law, can receive a reduction in the punishment for smuggling crimes by paying an amount equal to twice the customs value of the subject goods to the State Treasury until the investigation phase ends, or by paying a reduced sentence of one-third until a verdict is reached in the prosecution phase. These penalty reductions cannot be applied to repeat offenders or when the crime is committed as part of an organized activity.
Announcement: Convictions related to smuggling types such as tobacco and tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, fuel, drugs, weapons and ammunition, electronic devices and live animals, meat, tea, sugar, olives, and other relevant forms of smuggling that have become final judgments can be announced to the public by the Ministry of Customs and Trade (Article 4/9 of Law No. 5607).
Confiscation: According to Article 13 of the Law No. 5607 on smuggling, the provisions of the Turkish Penal Code regarding the confiscation of goods and gains shall be applied to smuggling offenses.
However, in order for any type of transportation vehicle intentionally used for smuggling or attempted smuggling to be confiscated, one of the following conditions must be met:
- The smuggled goods are hidden or transported in specially designed hidden compartments that facilitate the commission of the crime or prevent the disclosure of the act (such as concealments, etc.).
- The smuggled goods constitute the majority in terms of quantity or volume compared to the load of the transportation vehicle, or the transportation necessitates the use of the vehicle.
- The smuggled goods in the transport vehicle are prohibited substances or substances harmful to society or environmental health.
The non-imposition of a penalty or the decision to dismiss a public lawsuit based on effective repentance does not prevent the application of confiscation provisions regarding the subject goods.
Competent Court: Cases opened for smuggling offenses shall be heard in criminal courts of first instance determined by the Council of Judges and Prosecutors upon the proposal of the Ministry of Justice. However, if the crime of forgery of an official document is committed in connection with these crimes, the competent court shall be a heavy penal court.
Sanctions: The criminal sanctions for smuggling offenses are regulated in the Law No. 5607, corresponding to various acts of smuggling. Considering the lower limit of the criminal sanctions for some of these offenses, Probation, Deferred Sentence, and Conversion to Alternative Sanctions are not legally possible.
Furthermore, since smuggling offenses are included in the State Officials Law No. 657 as crimes that hinder public office, and they are considered disgraceful offenses in some special laws, they not only carry criminal sanctions but also pose obstacles to future entitlements.
Therefore, it is crucial to meticulously examine whether the elements of the smuggling offense are present and whether the seizure of the vehicle and goods is possible.
In our office located in the İzmit district of Kocaeli province, we provide consultancy and legal representation services in the field of smuggling offenses, as well as in all criminal cases, with the.