Three men have been charged after customs officers discovered 4.2 million suspected illicit cigarettes in a Glasgow warehouse.
The goods found are believed to be worth an estimated £1.6m in lost duty and taxes.
Further enquiries led to the uncovering of a tobacco factory in Hamilton, which was dismantled with the seizure of two industrial mixing machines, a tobacco shredding machine, packaging and 45kg of tobacco.
Fifty HMRC officers executed several warrants across Glasgow and Lanarkshire last Thursday (19 November 2020) along with eight colleagues from Police Scotland.
Three men from Airdrie, aged between 25 and 34, were arrested and charged with Excise Duty fraud and money laundering offences. Some £20,000 cash was also seized from one of the properties.
A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal in due course. The three men were released pending further investigation.
Joe Hendry, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “This is another example of the combined powers our partners at the Scottish Crime Campus and Serious Organised Crime Taskforce have to disrupt, detect and deter the illicit trade of tobacco and other forms of criminality.
“Tackling criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £1.9 billion a year. This is theft from the taxpayer and undermines legitimate traders.”
