In a note posted on its website, the authority explains that the cigarettes were "transported in carry-on luggage by 11 travellers, of both sexes, in about 30 [pieces of] hand luggage and/or backpacks”. As a result some €25,000 in duty, value-added tax and tobacco tax would have been avoided.

The items were seized during checks on luggage from a single flight, from Luanda.

In September 2017 customs officials seized, also on a flight from Luanda, 700,000 cigarettes carried in 50 carry-on bags of passengers of both sexes.