YEREVAN, JULY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. In the first six months of this year Armenian customs bodies revealed 133 cases of violation of customs rules and imposed fines of 185m 246 thousand drams (nearly 544 thousand USD). Karen Matevosian, the First Vice-Chairman of the RA State Customs Committee, informed journalists on July 16 that legally registered import of a number of goods being of much demand among the population has abruptly increased: 3371 mobile phones were legally registered by customs bodies in the first six months of 2006, while this number made 75649 in the same period of this year. In his words, they mainly make an attempt to smuggle foodstuffs and cheap clothes to Armenia. K. Matevosian also said that as a result of the structural and cadre changes made in the Department on Fighting Smuggling, in the past one year 16 out of the department's employees were relieved of their posts and 8 were employed to another job.

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