Jump to full article: Times Of London (uk), 2008-04-25
Author: David Charter
Intro: Customs seized 101 million smuggled cigarettes destined for Britain yesterday in a raid that highlights the huge black market in contraband tobacco driven by the highest price of smoking in Europe.
The cigarettes were recovered from three warehouses in Liège in eastern Belgium in a coup described as one of the largest in a single operation in the European Union.
It will, however, make only a small dent in the ten billion cigarettes estimated to be slipped into Britain every year, which Revenue & Customs believes cost the Treasury up to 2.5 billion annually in lost tax.
“This is a record haul and a significant breakthrough,” said a spokesman for Belgian Customs. Five men were arrested in the raid.
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