Contraband cigarette seizures more than double

SKAT plans to curb the growing problem with the help of the tobacco industry

Some 26.7 million cigarettes were seized in Denmark over the first nine months of 2015, reports DR.

It is more than double the figure taken in 2014, during which the tax agency SKAT confiscated 11.6 million cigarettes.

“It’s a growing problem as these cigarettes are sold on the black market and the state therefore loses money,” Preben Buchholtz, the deputy head of SKAT’s customs department, told DR.

SKAT is now planning to establish a co-operation with the tobacco industry, so they can curb the problem together.

“Whenever we uncover their methods, they find new ways to hide the cigarettes,” lamented Buchholtz.