Customs officers at the airport stopped a Russian passenger for a luggage scan, after he emerged from the ‘Nothing to Declare’ channel - and found that he had 19,000 cigarettes in his luggage.
The passenger had arrived from Riga, Latvia at 2am this morning.
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Luggage arriving in Malta on two separate flights, but intended to be transited to Spain, was also found to be carrying similar consignments. Customs authorities in Spain were immediately alerted and the owners of the luggage were apprehended in Spain upon their arrival.
It has been a busy few days for the Customs Department, which seized 7,400 contraband cigarettes on Friday and some 4,540 more during the weekend.