Two remanded after tobacco haul at airport

A British-Cypriot man and a Slovakian woman have been detained in connection with the possession of a large quantity of contraband tobacco and cigarettes, the customs department said on Tuesday.

The pair were arrested at Larnaca airport at midnight Saturday during the routine luggage inspection before their departure for Liverpool.

Customs said they seized 50 kilos of tobacco – 1,000 50-gramme packages – and 80 cartons containing 200 cigarettes each.

The contraband, worth €13,500 in taxes, had been brought into the Republic from the north, customs said.

The pair were remanded in custody for two days on Monday.

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.