Goods and accompanying documents that are not subject to administrative or criminal offenses or are indeed subject to such offenses but have not been seized or impounded during the verification of a criminal offense report shall be detained by the customs authorities during the course of proceedings on a criminal case or an administrative offense case.
The detention of goods and their corresponding documentation is formalized by executing an official protocol of detention. The detained goods and documents are seized and stored by the customs authorities for thirty calendar days, while goods which are subject to rapid deterioration are stored for a maximum of twenty-four hours.
For their storage, the detained goods are placed in temporary storage warehouses or other specialized facilities designated by the customs authority that are appropriately equipped for storing such commodities. When goods are detained by the customs authorities, the storage costs incurred shall be reimbursed by the persons to whom the goods are ultimately released. The costs associated with the storage, transportation, and transshipment (loading and unloading) of unclaimed detained goods are reimbursed using the proceeds generated from the liquidation and sale of these goods. The procedure for the reimbursement of expenses related to the storage of detained goods is established by the authorized body.
Amounts received from the sale of detained goods, calculated taking into account deductions, first of all, amounts of import customs duties and taxes calculated on the day of the detention of these goods, which would be payable if the detained goods were placed under the customs procedure for release for domestic consumption, secondly, expenses related to movement (transportation), transshipment (loading, unloading), storage and sale of detained goods are returned to the declarants, and if the goods have not been declared, to the owners of the goods if the customs authority has information on them and provided that these persons contact the customs authorities within three years from the day following the day of receipt of money from the sale of such goods. The customs authorities are required to notify the aforementioned persons of the availability of any refundable balances resulting from the sale of the goods.