The Luxembourg Government today revealed that customs officials unearthed a considerable amount of untaxed cigarette packets last week after attempts were made to disguise them as pasta boxes.
A load carrying what were thought to be boxes of pasta arrived at Luxembourg from a German town on the Polish border, to be temporarily stored in the Grand Duchy until the boxes were then shipped over to the UK. The itinerary soon raised suspicions for Luxembourg customs officials, as to choose a provisional storage stopover in Luxembourg rather than a direct shipment to England represented a much more expensive option, with no obvious benefits.
A subsequent customs control was carried out, and it was soon revealed that the load did not contain pasta but rather cigarettes from Belarus. Considering a purchase price of €1.5 per pack, the cigarettes would have created a return of five times their original value if sold on the UK's black market.
In total, 1,130,000 cigarettes were found to have not been ensured, meaning a negligence of €450,000 in tax and excise duty payments to the State. The subsequent punishment was reported to be a fine of over €2 million due to the magnitude of contraband involved.
Photo by Shutterstock
