Cigarette smugglers are jailed

Two smugglers who masterminded a plot to bring 24 million counterfeit cigarettes into the West Midlands by posing as legitimate businessmen have been jailed.

Andreas Apostolides and Costas Georgiou were the leaders of the smuggling ring, which also involved Robert Pitchford from Codsall, John Wright from Bloxwich and John Mason from Tipton.

Click on the image on the right to see pictures of members of the gang.

But, unbeknown to the criminals, customs officers were watching their every move and raids in Tipton, Birmingham and Leicester followed.

Almost 24 million fake cigarettes were unearthed, which would have draining £4m from the UK economy through duty evasion.

Paul Barton, of HMRC, said: "This was organised crime on an industrial scale."

London-based Apostolides and Georgiou formed a companies as a front to the smuggling operation in an attempt to present themselves as legitimate importers, mainly of dried pasta from Greece and stoneware from China.

But raids by customs officers included four million cigarettes sezied in Tipton in September 2008.

A consignment concealing around 7.5m counterfeit cigarettes branded as Gold Classic was also destined for Saltley, Birmingham, in March 2009.

Apostolides, 62, and Georgiou, 72, were this week each jailed for five years at Ipswich Crown Court. They were previously found guilty of conspiracy to fraudulently evade excise.

Mason, 43, of Cotterills Road, was earlier jailed for two years; Wright, 47, of Glastonbury Crescent, got 16 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months; and Pitchford, 55 of Moatbrook Avenue, got 12 weeks suspended for a year. All three admitted tobacco smuggling offences and were sentenced last March at Wolverhampton Crown Court.