Cigarette smuggling ring cracked  

A CHANCE discovery of hundreds of boxes of cigarettes, hidden behind bags of charcoal, has tipped off Namibian Police and customs officers and their South African counterparts to a massive international smuggling syndicate that appears to stretch from Zimbabwe via Namibia to South Africa.

A vigilant South African customs official at Vioolsdrift on Wednesday night discovered several hundred cartons of Peter Stuyvesant and Pacific Blue cigarettes hidden under a single row of charcoal during a routine inspection of a Namibian truck headed for Cape Town.

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