Record contraband haul of 64 million cigarettes

Maltese customs made a record haul of 64 million contraband cigarettes destined for the European market, in an investigation it said had taken weeks of observation.

Customs said the smuggled cigarettes were worth €12 million in customs duties and taxes.

The sheer volume of the cigarettes, unprecedented in the history of the department, were found in nine containers of 40 feet each, as they were being transshipped from Asia to an EU member state.

The containers were declared to contain furniture and children’s toys, which apart from containing their declared cargo, also contained the contraband cigarettes.

The nine containers have been confiscated, with the cigarettes now destined for destruction, while the rest of the confiscated cargo to become government property.

Customs officials said in a statement that three of the nine containers were discovered by officers on the basis of suspicious-looking documentation, before the containers were scanned using the US-donated VACIS container scanner.

The scanning led to the find of six more containers.