AN ice cream van was among three vehicles seized by customs officers during an operation to crackdown on contraband tobacco.
A team of 20 officers visited houses and stopped vehicles during the 48-hour exercise on Teesside at the weekend, looking for smuggled tobacco and drivers using red diesel.
During the operation, officers visited more than 50 homes, seizing 16,500 cigarettes, 15kg of hand-rolling tobacco worth £6,400 and 238 litres of alcohol.
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