The rate of cigarette and tobacco smuggling from the occupied territories has authorities seeking ways of further enhancing monitoring and control through checkpoints and airports, as rings seem to be developing even more ingenious methods of evading Customs Department officers.
Just over the past two days, two major cases were uncovered, with total tax liabilities exceeding half a million euro. The Department believes that the latest discoveries are connected to a previously uncovered ring, members of which are smuggling cigarettes via a sea route to neighbouring Israel.
In a Pyla case on Friday, 3,950 cartons of 200 cigarettes each, almost a million in quantity, were discovered in a rental car driven by a 26-year-old Israeli. The cartons did not bear the appropriate labelling, security features and traceability code.
Customs officers seized tobacco products and car, with the young Israeli placed in custody. Tax liabilities are in excess of 240 thousand euros.
A few hours later, members of the Green Line Control and Monitoring Centre, alerted customs officials to the arrest of a 51-year-old Turkish Cypriot with 128 cardboard boxes in his car, containing 6,400 contraband cartons of 200 cigarettes each.
Merchandise and vehicle were once again confiscated, with tax liabilities from the haul this time estimated at almost 400 thousand euros.
Record Seizures
According to official Customs data, the first half of 2025 saw a record number of seizures in contraband tobacco products originating from the occupied territories, compared to the corresponding period last year.
Cases have been rising over the past few months, as almost five million cigarettes and one million tobacco products were seized from January through to July.
Rolling tobacco is yet another dimension, with more than half a ton confiscated during the same period, not to add, 495 kgs of hookah tobacco.
Airports have not been too far behind. Authorities discovered more than half a million contraband cigarettes and 249 kgs of tobacco at Larnaca.