A HAUL of a quarter of a million cigarettes with an estimated £50,000 street value was seized by Customs and Excise officers at Teesside International Airport yesterday.

The seizure came as officers warned that regional airports were "not a soft touch" for criminals.

The cigarettes were seized from a gang of 11 passengers, all from the region, arriving on a flight from Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands.

Officers have been gathering intelligence about gangs who trade in bootleg cigarettes.

More than one and a half million cigarettes have been seized in the past four months at Teesside Airport.

Yesterday, a Customs operation also targeted Leeds Bradford airport, with another 300,000 cigarettes seized from ten passengers.

Mike Connolly, head of detection for the North region, said: "Officers from the airport, supplemented by others from Customs' National Strike Force, have yet again thwarted a co-ordinated attempt to smuggle cigarettes into the North-East.

"In the second major attempt in the past two days to evade duty, we have proven that our tactics of flexible deployment of anti-smuggling staff is a success.

"On this occasion, all 11 passengers were local to the area.

"We are aware, though, of other attempts by gangs from elsewhere in the country to use regional airports, because they see them as an easy touch.

"Not so. The combined seizure of half a million cigarettes from these two operations will hit the organisers hard in their pockets."

The men were released without charge while investigations take place.

A Teesside Airport spokesman said last night: "We support any action that Customs take to reduce the number of illegal cigarettes coming into the country."

Continued Customs raids mean the North-East could shed its label as the top cigarettes smuggling area.

Offenders can face heavy fines and the confiscation of thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes.