Former top customs officials denied reports that implicated Bulgaria in a massive cigarette smuggling scheme, controlled by the son of toppled Serb dictator Slobodan Milosevic, Marco.

"Bulgaria has never been involved in a Serbian cigarette smuggling ring," former head of the Customs Agency Emil Dimitrov told private TV channel bTV.

Last week Belgrade TV channel B 92 disclosed findings of a police investigation from 2003, which reportedly prove Marco Milosevic has pocketed millions of euros by smuggling shipments of cigarettes through a Bulgarian Black Sea channel, not without the assistance of local customs officials.

The Serbian connection surfaced again after the murder of the prominent underworld figure Ivan Todorov, known as the Doctor, in downtown Sofia on February 22.

Belgrade reports claim that the suspected smuggling baron and Milosevic were friends and partners in smuggling cigarettes through Bulgaria.

"Bulgaria has been a transit point for cigarettes and the process has been completely regulated. In this way Serbia remains the only station for contraband," Plamen Minev, another former head of the Customs Agency commented.

According to Minev, Doktora may "have come to know too much" and his murder have availed masterminds outside Bulgaria.

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