Source: Diário Digital - Portugal - 28/06/2010

More than two million cigarettes from the brands Fortuna, Nobel, Pall Mall and Chestersfield, worth 339 euros, were seized on Via Infante near Olhão, during a goods inspection operation, an official source said today.
A GNR source explained that in the context of a goods inspection action carried out on Sunday at Via Infante, GNR detected within half an hour three vans loaded with about 100 packs of tobacco, equivalent to more than two million of cigarettes.

The brands Fortuna, Nobel, Pall Mall, among others, indicate that that tobacco would be destined for the Spanish market, since in Portugal they do not have a significant circulation, explained the GNR, referring that the value of the seized merchandise is “339 thousand euros ”and that if sold in Portugal, the state would collect“ 284 thousand euros in taxes on that tobacco ”.

In the operation, the GNR, in addition to seizing tobacco and three vans, detained three individuals for the crime of smuggling traffic, whose penal framework provides for a prison sentence of up to three years.

The men were notified to be heard today in the Olhão court and to know the coercion measures.

Digital Diary / Lusa