A NEW weapon is being employed in the fight against cigarette smugglers who are closing down corner shops and putting lives at risk.

Customs officials at Tees Dock, Middlesbrough, now have a mobile x-ray scanning machine that can detect cigarettes concealed in 40ft long, lorry-sized containers.

As a special investigation by The Northern Echo revealed on Monday, 8.5m cigarettes can be carried in these same containers, netting organised crooks £1.5m profit each trip.

The first scanner to be used in the region, it works by transmitting an x-ray beam at the target vehicle or container. The beam is absorbed in differing amounts, depending on the density of the cargo.

The difference in the transmitting x-ray beam strength is recorded by an array of detectors, which produce an image of the cargo.

The scanners - there are 12 in the UK - can also spot cocaine, heroin and firearms.

Customs spokesman Rob Hastings-Trew said: "Seventy to 80 per cent of the cigarettes smuggled into the country come in freight loads of up to nine million in a single container.''

International gangs are behind 80 per cent of the smuggling. Black market sales have put small shops out of business,while some of the smuggled cigarettes are made in the Far East and do not conform to British safety standards