A 40-year-old Turkish Cypriot man was arrested at Larnaca airport after being found to be in possession of large quantities of cigarettes and tobacco he had brought with him from the north.
The man was due to depart from Larnaca for the United Kingdom on Monday, but customs officials found a total of 83 boxes containing 200 cigarettes each and 11 kilograms of rolling tobacco in his suitcase.
The items did not bear the bilingual safety warning in Greek and Turkish or the unique traceability code and security feature, all of which are characteristic of tobacco products bought in the Republic of Cyprus.
As such, he was arrested for having smuggled the items from the north, and appeared in court on Tuesday, where he was remanded in custody for two days.
However, he later officially surrendered the tobacco products in their entirety, and after paying a €7,000 out-of-court settlement, was released.
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