TWO men were intercepted at Southampton Airport with about 20,000 cigarettes destined for a criminal gang in Belfast, the city crown court heard.

The pair, acting as couriers, had flown from Tenerife, where they had been living, to Orly Airport in Paris.

There they boarded another flight to Southampton where they were detained by police and when their two suitcases were found to contain the cigarettes.

Andrejs Gorobecs, 44, and Edvards Kresloves, 38, both of no fixed abode, admitted possessing criminal property and were jailed for 36 weeks.