£50m of cigarettes seized at port

More than £50m of counterfeit cigarettes were seized from a Suffolk port during the first half of the year, HM Customs and Excise (HMRC) said.

Illegal meat, fake handbags and counterfeit condoms were among other items seized by HMRC officers at the Port of Felixstowe during 2007.

Officers are vowing to disrupt more smuggling supply lines in the new year.

HMRC spokesman Cliff Hathaway said cigarette smuggling was carried out by "highly organised criminal gangs".

Mr Hathaway told BBC Radio Suffolk: "There has certainly been an upsurge in counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes.

Arsenic and lead

"About half way through last year we seized 50 million cigarettes at Felixstowe alone.

"That would have cost the taxpayer £6m in lost duty which could have been used in the public purse in Suffolk - hospitals and schools - so it's is not a victimless crime."

Mr Hathaway also warned of the dangers of smoking counterfeit cigarettes.

"No cigarettes are good for you, but the levels of poison, arsenic and lead that are in counterfeit cigarettes are much higher.

"All the fraudsters are bothered about is putting all their resources into making the packaging look good and making it look indistinguishable from the genuine article so the public are fooled into buying them.

"They don't care what goes in the cigarettes or who they are sold to."