Latvian customs nabs over 2 mln contraband cigarettes

RIGA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Latvian customs has seized over 2 million contraband cigarettes, Latvian State revenue service said on Wednesday.

Analyzing the results of scanning of the incoming railway cars on the border with Belarus, the customs officials became suspicious that there may undeclared items among their cargo.

During inspecting the railway cars it was discovered that under the official cargo of granite chippings there were wooden boxes with 2.2 million contraband cigarettes.

If the seized cigarettes were sold on the black market, the state budget would have lost around 350,000 euros (384,892 U.S. dollars) in taxes, the state revenue service noted.