MILLIONS of pounds worth of cigarettes have been seized in a massive police and Customs haul in North Yorkshire.

HM Custom and Excise officials said the two hauls were organised by criminal gangs who would not stop at smuggling anything, including drugs and people, to make a profit.

Custom officers working with North Yorkshire Police have seized more than 11 million cigarettes in the last three days.

Last Wednesday, officers from the Newcastle-based Inland Anti-Smuggling team seized 5.9 million cigarettes from a lorry on the A1, near Northallerton.

The cigarettes, including De'ath, Winston and Lucky Strike brands, were not concealed, but were mis-described on the accompanying paperwork.

The vehicle was seized and the driver was later released after questioning. In the second haul, the same team of officers seized more than five million Lazer brand cigarettes at Exelby, near Leeming Bar. These cigarettes were also mis-described. In this incident, one man was arrested and bailed for six weeks following questioning.

Rob Hastings-Trew, Customs spokesman, said: "This was a tremendous couple of days work. This number of cigarettes would have netted a profit of around £1 million for those involved.

"These are organised criminal gangs - it's not the white van man trying to make a small profit. These are people who will smuggle anything that will make them a profit.

"Next time it could be drugs and even be human beings."

Updated: 10:39 Saturday, October 27, 2001