Two men have been charged after the seizure of 1.7 million cigarettes across a two-day operation spanning North and South Lanarkshire on 28th and 29th January.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), supported by Police Scotland, seized cigarettes and tobacco worth more than £1m in duty and taxes.
HMRC officers searched three premises and a vehicle in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire, and found 700,000 illicit cigarettes and 40kg of tobacco.
A further 1,044,000 cigarettes were seized from three storage units in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire.
Five arrests were made and two men, aged 28 and 40, were charged on suspicion of excise duty evasion. Investigations are ongoing.
An HMRC spokesperson said:
“Illicit cigarettes undermine legitimate retailers and deprive our public services of around £1.8 billion a year.
“We will continue to work with our Serious Organised Crime Taskforce partners to tackle the illicit trade and urge anyone with information about the smuggling, distribution or sale of illicit cigarettes to report it on GOV.UK.”
