Big increase in cigarettes seized
21.02.09
Customs officers have recovered 2.1 million cigarettes plus 1.5 tonnes of rolling tobacco worth £800,000 since April last year, hidden in the suitcases and hand luggage of smugglers arriving at Edinburgh Airport, the Scotsman reports.
Customs officers say organised gangs of smugglers are reaping massive profits by sneaking in duty free cigarettes, which are then sold in pubs and on street markets. The lost duty on the haul confiscated since last April is £550,000, while the criminals themselves could have made £475,000 from selling them on the black market.
In the latest large seizures last Thursday, a four men were arrested at Edinburgh Airport after customs officers discovered 80,000 cigarettes in their hand luggage and suitcases. The men, aged between 30 and 45, had flown into the airport from Fuerteventura via Madrid with cases packed with boxes of cigarettes and had no other luggage (including no clothing).
All four of the men were UK passport holders, although 3 lived in Fuerteventura and the other in Dublin. They were charged with the illegal importation of cigarettes, which usually means that they have been caught smuggling at least twice before. Hours later, officers arrested another four other men at the airport coming in from Faro in Portugal with 51,000 cigarettes.
Colin Fraser, detection manager with UKBA at Edinburgh Airport, told the newspaper: ‘The amounts being seized are rising. There is no subtlety involved in cigarette smuggling. It's about quantity so they simply try to pack in as many boxes as they can and hope they sneak through.’
Between April 2006 and March 2007, a total of 1.8m cigarettes and 456kg of tobacco were seized at Edinburgh Airport. In the following year, the figures stood at 2.3m cigarettes and 407kg of tobacco, with this year expected to exceed both totals.
Studies have estimated that nearly one out of five cigarettes sold in the UK was brought in illegally, with most coming through the ports.
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