NINE men have been arrested after customs officials discovered a suspected counterfeit cigarette factory.

Equipment and packaging was seized by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), including machinery deemed capable of filling 150 packets of counterfeit cigarettes per minute, potentially evading approximately £1m in duty per day.

Officers also seized 1.4 million suspected counterfeit cigarettes, worth an estimated £450,000 in unpaid excise duty.

Four premises were searched as part of the operation. The search of a residential address in Hamsterley also led to the discovery of an underground cannabis farm

The arrested men include a 56-year-old from Bishop Auckland and a 62-year-old from Stanley.

A 49-year-old man from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was arrested in a van near Crook. A 75-year-old and a 40-year-old, both from Barnsley, were arrested in a van on the A1 near Harrogate.

The other arrested men are a 68-year-old and a 22-year-old from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and two men of no fixed abode aged 31 and 42.

All were arrested on suspicion of the fraudulent evasion of excise duty and have been bailed;

HMRC referred the cannabis find to Durham Police.

Jo Tyler of HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service, said: “Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clamp down on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £2.1 billion a year. This is theft from the taxpayer and undermines legitimate traders."

* Anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco or alcohol should contact the Customs Hotline on 0800-59-5000.