MORE than 11 million smuggled cigarettes have been seized by customs officers in one of the biggest operations mounted against crime in the region.

Customs officials last night hailed the record seizures as a major breakthrough in the battle against criminal gangs - but warned that the North-East still remained Britain's biggest market for smuggled tobacco.

Officers from the inland anti-smuggling team, based in Newcastle, confiscated the American cigarettes after carrying out two raids on lorries stopped on the A1, in North Yorkshire.

They seized 5.9 million De'ath, Winston and Lucky Strike cigarettes from a lorry near Northallerton on Wednesday. The vehicle was detained and the driver released after questioning.

The following day, the same team confiscated more than five million Lazer brand cigarettes - thought to be going to Middlesbrough - at Exelby, near Bedale. One man has been bailed for six weeks after being interviewed by police.

Although the cigarettes, which were smuggled into Britain from a port in the South, had not been concealed, they were described as other goods on accompanying paperwork.

Numbers of contraband cigarettes seized in the North-East had fallen at the start of the year, but customs spokesman Rob Hastings-Trew said the latest raids would have a significant impact on figures to be published shortly.

Seventeen million illegally smuggled cigarettes were confiscated in the North-East in 1999, but that figure more than doubled to 45 million the following year.

Statistics are expected to show that customs officials are hitting government targets for putting tobacco smuggling into decline over a three-year period - but they have urged the public to play their part in eradicating black market traders.

Mr Hastings-Trew said: "With any figures, we could also add cigarettes found in other areas of the country that were actually intended for the North-East. The North-East is still an area that these gangs target simply because they have a ready market.

"When it is only £25 for a sleeve of 200 cigarettes, in some ways it is easy to see why people are seduced into buying them.

"But they might think twice if they knew whose pockets their money was going into. These are not nice people.

"This number of cigarettes would have netted a profit of about £1m for those involved, while having a major impact on honest shopkeepers.