Banana smuggler pays fine, then splits

By Evie Andreou

A 70-year-old Greek Cypriot man, driver of a refrigerator truck who was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the alleged smuggling of bananas from Turkey, was released after paying a €4,000 fine, Customs spokesman Christos Christou said on Thursday.

The truck was located by members of the drug squad close to the Astromeritis check point and after a search, some two tonnes of bananas were found inside, for which the driver failed to present any documents.

“He was brought to us by police at Customs control at the Astromeritis check point,” Christou told the Cyprus Mail.

The bananas from Ecuador were imported from Turkey to the breakaway regime in the north and then smuggled into the Republic. Their final destination was to be a Greek Cypriot fruit seller.

Both the truck and its container were confiscated.

“The bananas will be destroyed today, and the man paid €400 to get his truck back,” Christou said.

He added that Customs is trying to control the situation but it is not easy since the green line is 150 kilometres long, and there are only five checkpoints in the Republic and two in the bases.

“We try to control the situation as much as possible. But this is one of only two cases we had, where large quantities were discovered and seized,” Christou said.

Last year, another truck carrying a large quantity of watermelons smuggled from the north was also seized near the same area, he said.

He added that to clamp down on smuggling Customs also conduct controls in fruit markets.

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.