Port swoop on illegal cigarettes

Waterboilers were seized at Tilbury port containing 41,500 cigarettes

Illegal cigarettes with an estimated street value of up to £1.75m have been seized at an Essex port.

Containers arriving at Tilbury from Cyprus and Eastern Europe contained counterfeit products but the largest single haul came from Dubai.

Over 4.3m of the 7m seized over the last eight weeks came in a container from Dubai-labelled blankets, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said.

It estimates 16% of cigarettes smoked in the UK are counterfeit.

Kevin Sayer, of HMRC, said: "This illegal activity should be condemned by the public.

"Cigarette smuggling and counterfeiting is an organised crime, often linked to money laundering and drug trafficking.

"Not only are counterfeit cigarettes more dangerous to health due to their unregulated chemical content, but smokers who think wrongly they are getting a bargain don't realise that this trade damages honest businesses, costs billions in lost revenue and lines the pockets of criminals instead of funding public services."

The illegal finds included 41,500 cigarettes concealed in a load of boilers, originating in Lithuania, and 384,000 cigarettes concealed in packages in a container loaded with battery cases, from Poland.

A container described as hand towels from Cyprus was found to contain 750,000 cigarettes.