Smuggling ring transporting contraband cigarettes from the occupied territories to Israel has been “spotted” by the Customs Department, which has observed an alarming upward trend in seizures of untaxed tobacco products involving Israeli citizens.
According to a statement from the Customs Department, yet another incident occurred on Wednesday, August 12, when Customs Department officials, as part of their routine inspections to enforce the Green Line Regulation at the Deryneia Crossing Point, stopped a Turkish Cypriot taxi that was transporting an Israeli passenger to Larnaca Airport.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
During an inspection of the Israeli passenger’s luggage, 15 cartons—each containing 200 cigarettes—and 3 packages of hookah tobacco, one, which did not bear the “smoking is harmful” warning in Greek and Turkish, nor did they have the security feature or the unique traceability code, indicating that they were untaxed.
The tobacco products were seized and will undergo the prescribed destruction procedure. The suspect was initially arrested for the offenses committed in flagrante delicto, but was later released after his proposal for an out-of-court settlement of the case was accepted, with the payment of €2,000.
Meanwhile, as noted by the Customs Department in connection with the above seizure, based on statistics compiled from seizures at the crossing points, an alarming upward trend has been observed over the past two months involving Israeli citizens who are transportingsmuggling mainly tobacco products from the occupied territories with the intent of transporting them to Israel. This development reinforces the Department’s assessment that there may be a specific smuggling ring channeling cigarettes from the occupied territories through the Republic of Cyprus to Israel.
“Ant-style” smuggling
As he adds, “following the two major seizures carried out in February and November 2025, which initially revealed the activities of the ring transporting tobacco products via boats and ships from the coast of Cyprus to the coast of Israel, it appears that the ring has shifted to “ant smuggling.” This is a method of illegally transporting goods (e.g., cigarettes, drugs, or cash) in which smugglers do not carry a large shipment all at once. Instead, they use many people, each carrying very small quantities (like ant workers), making many consecutive trips so as not to arouse suspicion and to fly under the authorities’ radar.”
Specifically, in June, tobacco seizures at border crossings involving Israelis accounted for 14% of the total number (41 out of a total of 288), with 30% of cigarette seizures (22,080 cigarettes out of a total of 72,620), while in July, tobacco seizures at border crossings involving Israelis accounted for 24.5% of the total number (46 out of a total of 188), accounting for nearly 50% of cigarette seizures (20,980 cigarettes out of a total of 42,050)
