The Tax Agency’s Customs Surveillance Service, working alongside officers from the Civil Guard’s Fiscal and Border Unit at Ibiza Airport, has seized 2,100 packs of contraband cigarettes, with an estimated value of €12,600. The tobacco was being carried in the luggage of a 31-year-old Romanian passenger, who has been reported for a customs offence.
The seizure took place on the morning of Thursday, August 6, during routine customs and fiscal checks on passengers arriving at Ibiza Airport. Officers became suspicious of the man after noticing his nervous behaviour while collecting his luggage.
The Civil Guard and Customs officers stopped the passenger as he attempted to leave the terminal. He had arrived on a flight from Madrid, having previously travelled from Istanbul. According to the Tax Agency, the passenger answered the officers’ questions nervously and evasively, prompting them to take him to the airport customs facilities for a thorough inspection.
Officers first subjected the passenger’s two large checked suitcases and backpack to an X-ray scan before carrying out a manual inspection. Inside the three pieces of luggage, they discovered a total of 42,000 cigarettes.
After examining the seized tobacco, officers confirmed that the cigarettes did not bear the mandatory Spanish tax stamps. Given that the quantity was far beyond the legal limits for personal use, authorities seized the entire shipment and filed a smuggling report against the passenger.
The customs offence could result in fines exceeding three times the value of the seized tobacco, according to the applicable regulations.
