Over 9 million cigarettes, auto spare parts among counterfeit items seized by customs

The customs department within the Malta International Airport has in recent weeks seized 9,030,000 cigarettes and 58 boxes of spare parts for vehicles, on account of being counterfeits.

Other counterfeit items seized by customs officials included 14,000 footballs from three different trademarks, 11,200 pieces of children’s clothing, 30,660 pieces of lingerie, 9,792 bottles of shampoo, 23,552 tracksuit bottoms of various popular football clubs, 42,000 sports shoes and thousands of wrist watches of various.

The items were seized from 12 transshipment containers, according to the customs department.

It added that all items originated from the Far East and were destined to North Africa, with the exception of the spare parts, which were destined to Albania.

The customs department also seized several counterfeit items destined to Malta, including 100 game controllers, designer clothes, designer bags and belts and shirts and tracksuits branded with popular football clubs’ logos.