Illegal cigarette smuggler from Erdington jailed after gang evaded £2.4 million of tax

A MAN from Erdington who was part of a multi-million pound cigarettes smuggling gang has been jailed.Raymond Preece, 60, from Gravelly Lane, was arrested after evidence linked him to an operation which attempted to defraud the government of an estimated £2.4 million.StevenZindani, 59, and Gerard Smythe, 43, were initially arrested by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) after officers raided an industrial unit in June 2012 in Tyseley, Birmingham.Zindani, from Sharmans Cross Road, Solihull was found offloading cigarettes from the back of a lorry while Smythe, from Tilehouse Lane, Tidbury Green, Solihull loaded them into a van.Officers seized nearly six million counterfeit and non-UK duty paid cigarettes, which were packaged in boxes labelled as desserts.A few days earlier, HMRC seized a further 4.5m illicit cigarettes when they searched an unoccupied industrial unit in Redditch.Evidence revealed Zindani and Smythe had been working together to arrange delivery and distribution of the illicit cigarettes.