Customs officers have seized 8.5m smuggled cigarettes at Belfast docks.

The find, said to be worth about £5m, had been smuggled from China and was hidden behind boxes lined with carbon paper to try to avoid X-ray detection.

The cigarettes were seized by officers from the UK Border Agency. A man was arrested but released without charge.

John Whiting of HMRC said: “Purchasing cheap cigarettes without the duty paid on them means trading with criminals, and undermining honest businesses.”

He added: “The huge profits reaped from the sales of illegal cigarettes are ploughed straight back into the criminal underworld, feeding activities like drug dealing and fraud.”

Maggie Eyden, of the UK Border Agency in Northern Ireland said they were “committed to stamping out the problem of cigarette and tobacco smuggling”.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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