Manchester Airport smugglers spared jail

Tuesday, 26 March 2019 07:00

Three men who attempted to smuggle more than 220,000 cigarettes through Manchester Airport inside nine suitcases have been spared jail.

They were caught as they each took three large suitcases stuffed with tobacco through the 'nothing to declare' customs channel at the airport.

Ismaeel Abdul-Kareem, 46, Salem Abdullah and Hardo Artoshy, both 41, were each jailed for four months, suspended for two years, at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.

In total the men were found to be carrying 220,800 cigarettes in the nine cases, worth an estimated £77,428 in unpaid duty and VAT.

The three men, all from Oxford, were stopped at customs by Border Force officers after flying in from Iraq via Doha, in Qatar, in January this year.

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