The authorities and the role of the customs office of the Republic of Macedonia in the process of criminal investigation of customs crimes

The problem with crime is undoubtedly one of the biggest and most prominent ones at present. Nowadays the world is faced with many contemporary forms of criminal offences. Crime is assessed as a negative social conduct and represents a serious obstacle to the social and economic progress of countries. Customs crimes, as a part of economic and fnancial crimes, have for a while now been the interest of criminologists and criminal law, both at a local and international level. The crimes that are classifed as customs crimes are: smuggling, customs fraud and covering goods that are part of smuggling and customs fraud. Committing any of the above crimes means transporting goods over the customs line in the attempt to avoid paying customs charges and other tariffs determined by law. This directly affects the functioning of the system and causes great economic, political and similar consequences. Customs crimes are a highly proftable endeavor and are always international in their nature. This study will give an overview of the crimes that fall under the category of customs crimes, i.e. smuggling and customs fraud, as one of the indicators and causes of economic and fnancial crime that are even related to certain forms of organized crime. These types of crimes directly affect the economic progress of the country. The consequences of these crimes are great and the damages are hard to recover from. Considering that customs crimes are a serious threat and one of the most serious violations of customs regulations, it is clear that there is a need to investigate them further for the purpose of providing data to contribute to advancing the measures against crime and improving the effectiveness of the Customs Ofce in curbing it