A TOBACCO smuggling gang, which brought more than two million illegal cigarettes into the North-East hidden among fridge freezers, have been jailed for more than 26 years.

Ringleader Mohammad Zada presided over the eight-strong gang, which was caught with illegal tobacco products worth £713,037 in unpaid duty, an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) revealed.

The largest haul was discovered in a lorry in Middlesbrough where officers found 2,204,620 non-UK duty paid cigarettes hidden among a shipment of fridge freezers.

Zada, 37, of Applecross Grove, in Wynyard, Billingham, was jailed for five and a half years for conspiracy to evade excise duty in Teesside Crown Court last week.

Fellow smugglers, including his two brothers, Mustafa and Mahdee, both of Stockton, were also sentenced for conspiracy to evade excise duty, receiving a four-year prison sentence and three and half-year prison sentence respectively.

The court heard that Zada was caught taking delivery of 2,204,620 cigarettes at his discount furniture and electrical goods store, Bargain Planet, on Parliament Road, in Middlesbrough.

HMRC officers and the National Crime Agency found the cigarettes in a lorry parked outside his shop in August 2017, packed in cardboard boxes and hidden between 54 fridge freezers.

The driver of the lorry containing the illegal cigarettes, Slawomir Paprocki, 39, of Poland, was sentenced to four years in jail for his part in the operation.

He had entered the UK through the Harwich International Port from Holland earlier that day along with Lukasz Maziarka, 39, also from Poland.

Paprocki held legitimate paperwork for a delivery of white goods to a shop in Bristol, however he also had a fake document for an address in Sunderland to cover-up why they were in the North-East.

Maziarka must serve three years in prison, while fellow Polish national Dariusz Lodygovsky, 44, will serve 51 months after helping to unload the lorry in Middlesbrough.

Ahmed Al-Shateri, 37, of Warwick Street, Middlesbrough, was witnessed visiting a lock-up with the Zada brothers and was also selling illegal tobacco products in his shop and received a 32-month prison sentence.

Anna Kabata, 35, was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, after it was found she helped to arrange the import and delivery of the goods.

Denis Kerr, assistant director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “This was a shocking attempt to flood the North-East with millions of illegal cigarettes.

"Zada and his gang thought their crimes would go undetected, but they got caught and now they are paying the price.

“HMRC will not tolerate the trade in illegal tobacco, which starves the UK of money which should be used to fund our vital public services.

"The gang evaded enough duty to pay the salaries of 31 new Cleveland Police officers for a year."

The Zada brothers, Paprocki and Kabata were convicted of conspiracy to evade excise duty at Teesside Crown Court, on October 22, following a three week-long trial.

Al-Shateri, Maziarka and Lodygovsky admitted conspiracy to evade excise duty.