Two British nationals, both aged 22 years old, were arrested after attempting to smuggle a combined total of 25,000 untaxed cigarettes through Larnaca airport, the customs department announced on Friday.

The pair were travelling together and were due to board a flight from Larnaca to the United Kingdom on August 1, but a search of one of the pair’s luggage turned up a total of 60 boxes of 200 cigarettes each and a total of 1.75 kilograms of rolling tobacco.

The second passenger’s luggage was then searched, with customs department officials finding a total of 65 boxes of 200 cigarettes each and 1.25kg of rolling tobacco.

In both cases, the tobacco products did not bear the bilingual Turkish and Greek health warnings which are characteristic of tobacco products bought and sold in the Republic of Cyprus, nor did they bear the unique traceability code found on all tobacco products in the Republic of Cyprus.

As such, it was determined that import tax had not been paid for the products.

Both were then arrested and were subsequently released after paying a fine totalling €4,250.