A 33-year-old British man was arrested after attempting to smuggle a total of 32,400 cigarettes for which no import tax had been paid through Paphos airport, the customs department announced on Friday.

The arrest took place on August 2, with the man having attempted to board a flight to the United Kingdom.

A search of the man’s luggage found the cigarettes divided into a total of 162 boxes containing 200 cigarettes each.

The cigarettes 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 their bear the unique traceability code found on all tobacco products in the Republic of Cyprus.

As such, it was determined that the requisite import tax had not been paid for them, and the man was arrested.