Man held in massive cigarette bust

A MAN was yesterday arrested in connection with a huge Customs and Excise contraband operation.

On Thursday evening, officials at Limassol Port opened a 40-foot container marked as wood shavings and discovered 900 crates of Cyprus-manufactured cigarettes inside. Each crate contained 50 cartons.

Senior Customs and Excise officer Niki Hadjiyianni told the Cyprus Mail that, “the relevant duties and taxes alone amount to more than £741,000. Double that figure for the UK.”

The container had arrived from Dubai on September 11 and was bound for Felixstowe in England.

When asked whether the bust was a lucky break, Hadjiyianni said: “Not at all. We had certain confidential information available to us and had also carried out what we call a risk analysis on the container. It was a big effort by Customs and Excise.”

The man arrested is said to be a Cypriot from Limassol. A Cyprus company with foreign shareholders is understood to be under investigation.

“We are obviously not revealing any names at this stage,” said Hadjiyianni.

The bust is the second Customs success in just over a week, prompting questions as to whether a professional smuggling ring is using the island as a transit point or final destination for their operation. Nine days ago, two containers, also from Dubai, were found to contain illegal cigarettes worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

If convicted, the penalty is a £50,000 fine and/or three years in prison.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.