A SEDGLEY man has been jailed for his part in smuggling around 11 million cigarettes from Eastern Europe.

Donald Southall was part of an international criminal gang involved in the smuggling as well as evading £1.7 million in duty and laundering the criminal proceedings.

Southall was in charge of operating the UK side of the criminal network and overseeing the arrival and distribution of the cigarettes.

Following an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Southall alongside Robert Horton from Cannock, pleaded guilty to smuggling the cigarettes from Hungary.

Horton’s partner, Julie Henworth, also from Cannock, pleaded guilty to laundering the proceeds of their crime.

The three defendants were jailed for a total of 11 years and four months today.

Adrian Farley, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC said: “This was a large scale international tobacco smuggling plot which took our investigations all over Europe. With the support of law enforcement colleagues in Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Austria and France, we have broken up this gang and are now working to take away the proceeds of their crime.”

Confiscation proceedings to reclaim the criminal profits are currently underway, with assets already seized include a motor yacht, residential properties in the West Midlands and Spain, high performance classic vehicles including an E-type Jaguar and a Norton Commando motorbike and expensive designer jewellery.