CUSTOMS officers this week made a major breakthrough in the battle against contraband cigarettes smuggled into the region.

An undercover anti-smuggling team raided a warehouse, near Stockton, and broke up one of the main distribution points - known as a "slaughter point" - for illegal tobacco in the Cleveland area.

This week's raid was heralded as a great success. It is only the second time this year that anti-smuggling teams in the North-East have successfully hit smugglers at that level in the contraband chain.

On this occasion, customs discovered 592,000 cigarettes waiting to be broken into dealer-sized portions.

It follows on the heels of a four-day operation in the region which seized more than 350,000 cigarettes from about 200 premises.

Customs spokesman for the North-East, Rob Hastings-Trew, said: "We have to take out the dealers on the estates who supply children and have queues at their back doors, but this is a step up the chain.

"It is better to hit one of these points because we are more likely to find cigarettes at import or dealer level."

The retail value of the latest haul was £125,000.

Countrywide, 12 criminal gangs have been bust apart and earlier this week an illegal cigarette factory was discovered in the Midlands.