Felixstowe port sees cigarettes worth £250,000 seized
Counterfeit cigarettes worth £250,000 have been seized by border officials in Suffolk.
They were discovered at the Port of Felixstowe hidden in divans and mattresses in a container shipped from China.
UK Border Agency (UKBA) officials searched the container when they found a discrepancy in the paperwork.
They found more than 800,000 cigarettes in cartons marked Benson and Hedges Gold in large cardboard boxes.
Brian Hill, the UKBA assistant director at Felixstowe, said: "By making this detection we have hit the smugglers where it hurts them the most. In the pocket.
"Profits made from cigarette smuggling are often used to fund other criminal enterprises like drug or people trafficking.
"Make no mistake, this is serious organised crime and we are determined to stamp it out."
The cigarettes will be shredded and the pulp burned to generate electricity for the national grid.