SPAIN: The European anti-fraud office confirmed here at the weekend that it is investigating at least one case of aid for Third World countries being used to fund terrorism.
While officials from the Brussels-based organisation refused to give specific details, it is understood that EU aid, aimed at providing funds to help educate young peole caught up in the Middle Eastern conflict, had been used to buy explosives.
The conference, which was held to educate European journalists on what the organisation, OLAF, was doing, was also told that Britain and Northern Irealand, with the highest cigarette prices in the EU, also has the highest level of tobacco smuggling.
Ms Gill Stevens, deputy head of communications for the UK Customs and Excise, said the accepted figure was that 80 per cent of tobacco-smuggling in the EU was destined for the UK.
It was believed this was happening because of the cost of a packet of cigarettes there and now one in five cigarettes being smoked in Britain was being smuggled.
"This has meant a huge loss of revenue to the Government which could be as high as £3.5 billion when linked with the high level of alcohol imports from France," she said. She said most of the tobacco consignments coming into Britain were in containers and customs and excise officers were becoming more adept at seizing them.
She and other speakers said there was a new, dangerous trend in tobacco-smuggling because the tobacco was now being sourced in the Far East and there were no regulations on how it was being treated during manufacture.
She said that while cigarettes were being smuggled into Northern Ireland, the main problem for customs staff there was the smuggling of oil, which was very difficult to detect.
The head of OLAF Communications, Mr Alexandro Buttice, said the Unit's work involved the prevention and detection of EU fraud across a vast range of areas.
These would include such diverse subjects as ewe subsidies to import tariffs on shrimps and the evasion of VAT and other taxes on all manufactured goods.
"For example, we are currently going through the paperwork on 40,000 containers of television sets to see if we can find irregularities," he said.