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Customs Department: They Caught Them with 200 Boxes of Cigarettes and 10 kg of Tobacco (PHOTO)

Published March 10, 2026, 17:10
Customs Department: They Caught Them with 200 Boxes of Cigarettes and 10 kg of Tobacco (PHOTO)

On 8/3/2026, officials from the Customs Department at Paphos Airport, following an evaluation of information, detected a 34-year-old Cypriot passenger before his departure to the United Kingdom, with his luggage containing a large quantity of tobacco products that did not bear the warning label for smoking in Greek and Turkish, nor the security feature and unique traceability code, indicating that they were smuggled. The passenger was arrested for immediate offenses, and the luggage and its contents were confiscated. He was remanded in custody for 2 days and will be tried on March 20th. In a separate incident, at Larnaca Airport, Customs officials detected a Turkish Cypriot passenger with 148 boxes of cigarettes, also lacking the necessary legality indications. The passenger was released after accepting a proposal for an out-of-court settlement of the offenses with the payment of €8,880. The checks were carried out after evaluating information and aim to combat the smuggling of tobacco products. The lack of labeling and traceability codes indicates that the products were duty-free and illegally imported. In both cases, the products were confiscated by the authorities.