Smugglers’ secret tricks to send cigarettes into Europe: Pictures reveal Belarusian gangs fit cars with ‘smoke holes’ where dozens of fakes can be stashed
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | April 10, 2013 21:39
These pictures reveal the crafty tricks used by tobacco smugglers to carry counterfeit cigarettes into Europe undetected.
From scores of cigarette boxes stashed inside a spare tyre, to packets piled high behind a rear bumper, they show the array of hidden compartments created in eastern European smugglers’ cars.
It is thought that some garages in Belarus – where the pictures were taken – have started offering a whole new service for clients; installing secret cubbyholes in vehicles anywhere from the dashboard to the bumper for drivers to stash cigarettes.
The smugglers can then drive across borders into the European Union in the hope that their hidden hauls will escape the attention of the authorities.
In the UK, HM Revenue and Customs estimates that tobacco fraud costs the government around £1.8billion every year.
Last month more than 30 million illegal cigarettes were discovered at Southampton Container Port in a shipment that was supposed to contain wind turbines.
They were thought to be counterfeit cigarettes that originated in China.
The smugglers had described the containers contents as ‘wind turbine parts’ on import documents in a bid to avoid paying more than £8million in taxes and duty, HMRC said at the time.
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