Vape devices were discovered by customs officials at Larnaca Airport hidden inside packages declared as children's toys, authorities said. One person in the Nicosia district, believed to be the intended recipient, was arrested.
According to a Customs Department statement issued on Sunday, officers at the postal parcel exchange facility at Larnaca Airport carried out a physical inspection of a package from the United States selected through the customs risk management system.
The package had been declared as containing three packages of children's toys, specifically trading cards from a well-known animated franchise, and had a total weight of 4.2kg.
During the inspection, conducted in the presence of a postal officer, customs officials found that the three packages did not contain the declared toy cards.
Instead, they contained a total of 48 vape devices, in various flavours, with 16 devices in each package.
The devices were labelled as containing:
- Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC): 89% concentration, or 1,517.65mg per device
- Cannabidiol (CBD): 7.49% concentration, or 3.21mg per device
The products had a combined Total Active Cannabinoid (TAC) concentration of 96.49%.
The statement said the Drug Law Enforcement Unit (YKAN) was immediately notified and officers attended the inspection site.
The parcel and its contents were seized by Customs and handed over to YKAN officers, who subsequently obtained a warrant and arrested a person in the Nicosia district believed to be the intended recipient.
Suitcases packed with tobacco
In a separate case, Customs officers at Larnaca Airport, acting on intelligence, identified five British nationals before they boarded a flight to Manchester.
Their luggage contained large quantities of rolling tobacco whose packaging did not carry the mandatory health warnings in Greek and Turkish, nor the required security markings and traceability codes, indicating that the products were duty-unpaid.
Officials found:
- 300 packets of 50 grams each (15kg) in the first passenger's luggage.
- 235 packets of 50 grams each (11.75kg) in the second passenger's luggage.
- 300 packets of 50 grams each (15kg) in the third passenger's luggage.
- 360 packets of 50 grams each (18kg) in the fourth passenger's luggage.
- 300 packets of 50 grams each (15kg) in the fifth passenger's luggage.
The five passengers were arrested for offences committed in flagrante delicto, while the luggage and its contents, amounting to 74.75kg of tobacco, were confiscated.
All five appeared before the Larnaca District Court, which issued two-day detention orders against them.
