COFFEE, STOLEN VEHICLES SMUGGLING CHAIN IN DANUBE RIVER REGION SEVERED

SEVERED $ VINKOVCI, 16 Oct (Hina) - The members of Vukovar County police, financial police, U.N. Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) and Transitional Police Force on Thursday severed a coffee and stolen vehicles smuggling chain. At a press conference held in the eastern Croatian town of Vinkovci, police representatives said that the owners of two companies from Vukovar, in the U.N.-administered area, and the owner of a company from Zagreb, had in September imported a total of 1,056 tons of raw coffee beans in 44 trailer trucks and sold it in the Croatian Danube river region and Yugoslavia, without paying taxes. In that way, they withheld taxes amounting to more than five million kunas (more than $800,000). Police representatives said that four persons, of whom three have been detained, stole vehicles in the areas of Zagreb and Vinkovci, transported them to the U.N.-administered area and gave them to three accomplices, who would then sell the vehicles in Yugoslavia. During August, September and October, they managed to steal and smuggle eight vehicles. (hina) jn rm 162201 MET oct 97