Contraband cigs found in lorries

Officers stopped a lorry as it left the Dieppe ferry on Saturday, March 10. A search of the vehicle, which had come from Madrid, revealed 26 pallets in the trailer. Sixteen of these held tomatoes but 10 contained three million cigarettes.

The revenue evaded on the goods is estimated to be about 360,000.

The 28-year-old driver, a British national from Leicestershire, was arrested, interviewed and released on bail pending further inquiries.

Just two days later more than four million cigarettes were confiscated from a lorry carrying pallets of incontinence pads. When searching the Spanish-registered trailer which had arrived from Dieppe, customs officers discovered that the initial pallets contained medical products but others contained what are believed to be counterfeit Lambert and Butler cigarettes.

The haul constituted a potential revenue loss of 530,000. The driver, a 41-year-old from Spain, was arrested, interviewed and released on bail pending further inquiries.