CUSTOMS officials plan to keep up the pressure on smugglers of bootleg cigarettes and alcohol following their latest operation in the region yesterday.

Hundreds of lorries and vans were stopped by officers from Customs and Excise to search for illegal contraband heading into the North-East.

They targeted locations on the A1(M) at Scotch Corner, Washington Services in Tyne and Wear, Wellfield on the A19 near Peterlee in east Durham, and the Tyne Tunnel.

The operation, also taking place in Scotland and the North-West, was supported by police and the Vehicle Inspectorate.

Rob Hastings-Trew, a Customs and Excise spokesman, said that no major seizures had been made in the North-East, although half a million cigarettes were confiscated by officers in Scotland.

Two drivers had also been pulled up for using illegal "red" diesel in their vehicles.

He said: "The North-East will continue to be an area that we target particularly because of its involvement in the cigarette smuggling trade.

"We will continue to use a variety of methods to trap those involved."

The North-East is said to be Britain's biggest market for smuggled tobacco.

It costs the Government hundreds of millions of pounds per year while helping to fund the activities of criminal gangs.

Only last month just under six million cigarettes were seized from a lorry near Northallerton during raids in the region