Record haul of contraband cigarettes

Two containers with some 15 million contraband cigarettes were intercepted last week by the police and Customs. They originated from China and were destined for Malta, the police said yesterday in a statement.

The Police Economic Crimes Squad and officials of the Customs Enforcement Unit, the Customs Intelligence Service and the Container Monitoring Unit of the local Customs have been conducting intensive investigations into contraband cigarettes over the past few weeks, the statement said.

The first consignment with five million cigarettes was intercepted by the police and Customs early in the week as investigations intensified. Investigations led the local authorities to believe that another container on its way to Malta also contained contraband cigarettes and not what was declared on the manifest.

This was identified and also confiscated; it contained about 10 million cigarettes.

A Mellieha man, aged about 50, was arrested by the police and is expected to be arraigned in court in the coming days.