A NEW team of investigators is tackling booze bandits and fraudsters in East Lancashire.

The Customs and Excise outfit has moved into offices in Blackburn as part of a reorganisation of its North West operation.

The introduction of the team comes after it was revealed gangs carrying cheap booze into East Lancashire from the continent are costing local pubs thousands of pounds a year.

But, as well as bootleg products such as beer and spirits, the investigators will also be probing VAT fraud, drugs trafficking and the illegal importation of pornography and endangered species.

A spokesman for Customs and Excise said: "The East Lancashire area was previously covered from elsewhere but now we have a team based in Blackburn.

"We will be working in conjunction with staff at airports and ports and we will be following up information gained locally.

"We aim to take out the people who are financing and organising operations, who are very rarely the ones detained at the ports and airports.

"We are very much an intelligence-based operation and officers based in Blackburn will be getting as much local information as they can."

The unit, based in Chaucer's Walk, has already made contact with organisations such as local off-licences and the Licensed Victuallers Association.

People are also being urged to telephone a Bootleg Hotline on 0800 901901 and a Drugs Hotline on 0800 595000.

Lancashire is among the top ten destinations for duty-dodging gangs who bring back vans loaded with cheap booze from Europe.

An estimated 34 vans full of alcohol come into the area each week.

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