A British 44-year-old found possessing 40 kilos of bag tobacco and 200 cartons containing 2,000 packets of a total of 20,000 cigarettes, which he acquired from the occupied territories of Northern Cyprus carrying them in two pieces of luggage through Pafos International Airport, was arrested by the Cypriot authorities after the merchandise was discovered by the company operating the airport that alerted the customs authorities. The British man departing from Pafos was returning to Britain where he could sell the untaxed or even smuggled tobacco products at multiple earnings. He could also consume them himself instead of paying the same value of earnings to obtain products of the same quantity from the British legal domestic market. After the 44-year-old man from Britain was unable to pay the fine imposed on him, usually amounting for his case to a few thousand of Euros, he was handed over to the Cypriot authorities, under which he remains in custody.
A similar case involving much smaller quantities of a 35-year-old who deposited the fine imposed on him and was subsequently set free was spotted earlier in April in the same city of Pafos. A similar case involving much smaller quantities of 10 cigarette cartons, 8 additional packets of cigarettes in all making 108, 1.5 kilogram of rolling tobacco pouches and 550 grammars of hookah tobacco of an Arab 35-year-old was spotted in the same city of Pafos a few days earlier in April who was charged a fine of €2,500 which he paid in full and was subsequently set free by the authorities that were conducting street car searches. The 35-year-old man had obtained the merchandise from the occupied territories of Northern Cyprus and imported it untaxed into free Cyprus before he was searched by Pafos Police and was found possessing it.
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