CIGARETTES FROM LINER

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28089, 3 October 1956, Page 12

CIGARETTES FROM LINER

CUSTOMS OFFICERS’ DISCOVERY IN VAN WITH SOILED LAUNDRY (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. October 2. Customs officers in Wellington made their biggest haul in years when they found 25,000 American cigarettes concealed, in the back of a laundry waggon alongside the Dominion Monarch at Pipitea wharf about noon today. After they had seized the contraband they recovered between 3000 and 4000 cigarettes, still in cartons, which had evidently been thrown through portholes or over deck rails into the water alongside the ship. Customs men believe that many of the cigarettes may have been thrown overboard but not recovered. A senior Customs officer said this evening that the haul was the biggest in Wellington for some years. No-one has yet been charged with attempting to smuggle the cigarettes into Wellington. Two Customs preventive officers discovered the cigarettes when they examined the van, which was loading laundry from the liner. They promptly seized the cigarettes from under the clothing. Normal procedure for disposing of confiscated cigarettes is to give them to charitable organisations.