The number of cigarettes confiscated by Austrian authorities at border crossings and elsewhere declined significantly during the first half of 2007, according to official data.

Austrian authorities confiscated more than 60 million cigarettes during the first half of 2006 but only 18 million during the first half of this year. The increase in confiscations in 2006 was reportedly caused by an increase in the number of personnel and more use of trained dogs and of special scanners. The authorities cite the break-up of three big smuggling rings, which had tried to smuggle 30 million cigarettes into Austria last year, as the reason for the large number of confiscations in 2006.
However, the number of smugglers arrested increased from 1,500 in the first six months of 2006 to 1,600 in the same period this year. The confiscated cigarettes, which had a street value of more than € 3 million (USD 4.1 million), have been shredded and burned.