Mehtap Yilmaz Ozdemir
15 January 2020•Update: 15 January 2020
ANKARA
Custom officials seized about 15 million contraband cigarette papers in western Turkey, the country’s Trade Ministry said on Wednesday.
Officials got a tip a shipment of illegal filter-tipped cigarette papers would be brought into the country through the Kapikule border gate in the Edirne province, bordering Bulgaria, said a ministry statement.
After two trucks were identified for X-ray scanning, officials found 14.75 million filter-tipped rolling papers and 120 cigarette rolling machines.
The market value of the contraband is some 2 million Turkish liras ($340,000), said the statement.
*Writing by Davut Demircan
