17/10/2002

Cigarettes seized in Antrim

In an operation involving police and customs officers 80,000 illegal cigarettes have been seized in Antrim.

The cigarettes were discovered in a car stopped by police officers at a checkpoint on the Dublin Road on Wednesday afternoon.

A man with a Ballymena address was arrested for questioning.

Police said that in a follow up search of premises in Ballymena a number of items were taken for examination.

Yesterday, Customs Officers netted around 300,000 cigarettes in an operation at Belfast International Airport.

Customs assisted by police detected the cigarettes on flights arriving from Spain and the Canary Islands. The haul would have amounted to approximately £50,000 in lost revenue.

The illegal tobacco trade is estimated to cost UK treasury around £4 billion-a-year.

(SP)

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