Filenews 7 August 2024 - by Fanis Makrides
The large profit margin seems to be the dark motive of those involved in the illegal business of transporting duty-free tobacco products to Great Britain from Cyprus.
This is evident from the data of the case with tobacco products that was detained by the Department of Customs and Excise of the Republic of Cyprus last Friday at Larnaka airport.
The three travellers bound for England, two holders of Cypriot passports and one with a British passport, were caught red-handed carrying 246 boxes of 200 cigarettes each and 13kg and 850g roll-your-own tobacco. And if they achieved their goal, they would make a big profit from this illegal activity.
Suffice it to say that the 2,460 packages they would ship to the UK cost at least €35,000 in England. A pack of cigarettes from the occupied areas, from where they seem to have obtained them, costs €2-2.5, while at the same time a pack of 20 cigarettes in England, according to official data, has an average retail price of €14.5. In other words, the profit margin is extremely large.
At the same time, the three aforementioned who were arrested, managed to pay a respectable amount as part of a settlement with the Department of Customs and Excise so that they would remain free and not have further entanglements with the Law. They paid, in particular, €20,000.
Specifically, as officially informed by the Department of Customs and Excise, the three passengers were arrested for flagrant offenses and then released, after paying €8,500, €6,500 and €5,000 respectively (total €20,000) for the out-of-court settlement of the offenses.
It should be noted that in the official briefing, it is stated that these tobacco products did not bear the marking for the harm of smoking in Greek and Turkish, nor the security feature and the unique traceability code, "indications that they were duty-free", as noted by the Department of Customs.
This is not the first time the Department of Customs and Excise has handled identical cases. There have been other cases since the beginning of the summer of passengers attempting to transport tobacco products from Cyprus to England.
Indicatively, on June 4, following a check by Customs and Excise officers on the luggage of three passengers shortly before their departure from Larnaka Airport for the United Kingdom, they located and confiscated a large quantity of duty-free tobacco products, which were illegally transported from the occupied areas to the free areas of the Republic of Cyprus for export and sale to the United Kingdom.
Within a total of six bags, 392 boxes of 200 cigarettes each and 43 kilos of roll-your-own tobacco were found, which did not bear the necessary markings provided by law. The three passengers had been arrested for flagrant offenses and the next day (5/6) they were taken to the Larnaca District Court, which ordered their detention for two days.
