Border Force officers have foiled the biggest ever attempt to smuggle cigarettes into the UK after uncovering more than 11million cigarettes at the Port of Felixstowe.
Part of the illegal shipment of cigarettes discovered at the Port of Felixstowe by Border Force officials.
The detection was made after officers searched a container that had arrived at the port – Britain’s premiere container terminal – on a ship from Aejea, Dubai.
The cargo was listed as formaldehyde resin but during the search officers discovered hundreds of boxes containing in total 11,266,800 cigarettes.
Border Force chief said it was the biggest single seizure of cigarettes made at the port.
Had the smuggling attempt proved successful, it could have cost the Treasury around £3.2m in unpaid duty and VAT.
Charlotte Mann, assistant director for Border Force Felixstowe, said: “The container was scanned and officers then carried out a physical search.
“They discovered more than nine hundred boxes inside containing four different brands of cigarettes.
“This is a significant seizure, the biggest my officers have ever made at the port. By stopping the shipment Border Force has starved those responsible of the proceeds of their criminality.
“The black market cheats honest traders and it is effectively stealing from the public purse. People tempted by cheap cigarettes and tobacco should think again.”
The first cigarettes were found on September 19, but the sheer scale of the smuggling attempt meant that the cigarettes were not fully unloaded and tallied until three days later, September 22.
Border Force officers use hi-tech search equipment to detect banned and restricted goods that smugglers attempt to bring into the country.
They use an array of search techniques, which in addition to sniffer dogs includes carbon dioxide detectors, heartbeat monitors and scanners – as well as visual searches – to find illegal drugs, firearms and tobacco which would otherwise end up causing harm to local people, businesses and communities.
Anyone with information about activity they suspect may be linked to smuggling can call our hotline on 0800 59 5000.
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