Customs officers at Larnaca airport arrested two passengers on Sunday after finding 244 cartons of cigarettes and 9.5 kg of rolling tobacco on which no duty had been paid.
Acting on intelligence, officers found the cigarettes, each carton holding 200, in four checked bags belonging to one of the passengers. The tobacco was in two small bags belonging to the other. Its packaging carried no health warning in Greek or Turkish and lacked both the security feature and the unique traceability code, which indicated that duty had not been paid.
The two men, Irish nationals aged 37 and 52, were flying to Manchester and London respectively.
Both were arrested on the spot, and their bags and contents were seized. One was held in custody and was due to appear before Larnaca District Court on Monday. The other was released after his request to settle the case out of court for 3,500 euros was accepted.
The seized cigarettes will be destroyed.
