Thousands of packets of cigarettes wash ashore on Noord-Holland beaches
Dutch customs officials are investigating the discovery of thousands of waterlogged cigarette packs that washed up along the Noord-Holland coast between Wijk aan Zee and Camperduin, NH reports. A total of 23,000 cigarettes—mainly L&M brand—have been recovered so far, most of them soaked and unusable.
The first discovery was made Monday afternoon near Egmond aan Zee, when local lifeguards responded to a report of a potential drowning. Instead, they found a large black garbage bag floating offshore.
“When we opened the bag on the beach, it turned out to be filled with cartons of cigarettes,” Ron Zentveld of the Egmond lifeguard service told NH. The bundle, estimated to weigh five kilograms, contained roughly 600 packs.
Campers and beachgoers later found additional cartons during walks near Egmond and in Bergen. “They handed the cigarettes over to us, and we then gave them to the police,” Zentveld added. In some cases, the recovered cigarettes—primarily in red, blue, and white Marlboro packaging—were discarded in trash bins. “That’s good to see,” Marco Snijders from the beach salvage authority in Bergen, told NH.
Customs authorities have confirmed to regional broadcaster NH that the cigarettes may be smuggled goods and are treating the incident as a potential case of illegal tobacco import. “We’ve never seen this before,” a customs spokesperson said. “You don’t want this on the beach. We’re trying to get a full picture of what has washed up and determine where the cigarette packs came from.”
The packages are likely what authorities call “illicit whites”—cigarettes legally produced abroad but smuggled into the Netherlands and sold outside official channels. The price of cigarettes in the country has sharply increased in recent years due to rising excise taxes, fueling a rise in illicit tobacco trade. There are two types of illegal cigarettes: those made in underground factories and those legally produced abroad but imported illegally.
Authorities stressed that most of the cigarettes were found completely soaked and no longer smokeable. “The cartons were soaking wet. That’s why we’re not entirely sure this is a smuggling case,” customs said. “They could also be part of a shipment lost overboard by a ship’s crew.”
Still, customs is patrolling the Noord-Holland coastline to monitor for further washups. “Because more packs may wash ashore, we’re continuing our search,” the spokesperson confirmed to NH.
