From: Daily Mirror
Customs officers seize 12 million fake cigarettes and smash Chinese gang
Eleven million fake ciggies have been seized by customs officers in a swoop which smashed a Chinese smuggling gang.
The haul, worth £3million on the black market, was imported from China and destined for UK black market outlets.
The seizure of 11.3 million counterfeit Regal and Super-kings brands is the biggest in the North East.
The cigarettes were identified as fake after officers noticed all of the boxes in which they were packaged contained the same serial number. The quality was said to be “extremely poor” and likely to have posed extra health risks. A task force discovered the counterfeits in a warehouse on the banks of the Tyne in Newcastle.
The masterminds behind the operation are still at large.
The taxman would have been cheated out of £2.2million in excise duty if the cigarettes had reached the streets.
Michael Connolly, chief customs detection officer in the North East, said: “Cigarette smuggling is a black cloud over the region and finances organised crime on a global scale. ”
The death rate from lung cancer in the area is one-and-a-half times higher than in the rest of the country.
