Hungarian cigarette smuggler caught on A1 motorway
A 37-year-old Hungarian has been arrested after police found 500 packets of cigarettes worth 40,000 Euros stashed in his car last night (Tues).A spokesman for Austrian motorway police forces said today (Weds) the man who didnt have a valid driving licence was stopped on the A1 western motorway near the Eberstalzell exit in Upper Austria.This arrest comes just days after a study conducted by Eurobarometer, the European Comission (EC) statistics agency, revealed that Austrian smokers consume more cigarettes than the European Union (EU) average.The research showed that 41 per cent of women and 27 per cent of men in Austria smoke. Another result of the study is that Austrian smokers daily dose is an average 18 cigarettes, while the average smoker in the EU needs 14 cigarettes a day.The Austrian government recently presented a new campaign to raise the awareness of the dangers of smuggled tobacco products. The campaigns first posters shows a smoker saying “Josef K. enjoys rat poison!”.Peoples Party (ÖVP) Financial Affairs State Secretary Reinhold Lopatka said almost 50 million illegal cigarettes had been confiscated in Austria in 2009.