Cigarettes worth €5.29m seized
Customs officers in Belfast have intercepted smuggled cigarettes worth €5.29m, it was confirmed today.
The cargo of almost 15 million cigarettes was concealed in two consignments of ceramic pots which arrived in the port from Antwerp in Belgium.
It is believed the duty free cigarettes would have been sold on the black market in Northern Ireland and Ireland.
A HM Customs spokesman said the seizure followed hard on the discovery last week of smuggled cigarettes at the port in Larne which would have cost the taxpayer around €4m in lost revenue.
The spokesman said: ‘‘Last week it was duty free cigarettes in a consignment of Bulgarian matches. This week it’s clay pots.
‘‘These latest seIzures highlight our ability to detect these illegal consignments, however the smugglers try to disguise them.
‘‘This haul would have meant the loss of €5.29m in sales to local shops.
‘‘Tobacco smuggling takes revenue away from the local economy and into the hands of a few criminals. The illegal sale of duty free cigarettes also means less money for schools and hospitals.’’
According to HM Customs and Excise, contraband tobacco and alcohol is being smuggled into to the UK from all over the world.
The majority of illegal cigarettes come from outside the European Union, with between 70 and 80% of cigarettes smuggled in freight.
Particularly large numbers of illegal cigarettes come from China, the Middle East, states which made up the former Soviet Union, the Balkans and Africa.
The Government invested an extra €340m in March 2000 to tackling tobacco smuggling, with 1,000 more Customs officers and a national network of hi-tech X-ray scanners throughout the UK.
