TOBACCO SMUGGLERS
A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER
FRANCO-BELGIAN BORDER
(Received April 22, 3 p.m.)
LONDON, April 21,
As the French duties on tobacco are much higher than the Belgian, smuggling into France on a small scale is normal. The "Daily Telegraph's" Lille correspondent describes a desperate midnight encounter between smugglers and Customs officers on the Franco-Belgian frontier.
Two Customs officers were suddenly surrounded by a dozen men, waving revolvers. The Customs men fired over their assailants' heads, and in the middle of the struggle three tobacco-laden .motor-lorries ' drove up. Two of them went back into Belgian territory, but the third dashed through towards Lille. .
The Customs men pursued .it in a motor-car. When the smugglers were overtaken in the middle of Lille they threw.petrol over the tobacco, set it on fire, and flung lighted bales under their pursuers' car. They then jumped off and escaped.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19350422.2.92.5
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 94, 22 April 1935, Page 8
Word Count
143TOBACCO SMUGGLERS Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 94, 22 April 1935, Page 8
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