Customs officers seized a record haul of more than 250 million counterfeit or pirated goods — the vast majority of them coming from China — as they entered the European Union last year.

EU officials said yesterday that at a “very conservative estimate”, the items were worth at least € 2 billion (£1.35 billion).

The seizures show a dramatic threefold rise over the 75 million items that were confiscated in 2005 and represented both a higher success rate by Customs services and the increased determination of smugglers to target Europe, using not only the traditional routes but also the internet and air and postal traffic.

Cigarettes remain the biggest single item. The 156 million packets seized accounted for 60 per cent of the overall total and were worth up to € 1 billion to national exchequers in lost value added tax and excise duties.

While significant quantities of fake clothing and CDs and DVDs were also intercepted, the European Commission noted that the increase in medicines and items for personal use, such as Viagra, was “particularly worrying” because of the potential health threats they posed.

As the electrical market has grown, smugglers are increasingly pirating MP3/MP4 players, DVD players, memory sticks and telephone accessories such as counterfeit adapters, chargers and batteries.

More than 80 per cent of all items seized were manufactured in China, while India is the largest source for counterfeit medicines, followed by the United Arab Emirates.

Customs officials in almost every country of the EU uncovered more pirated goods than during the previous year.

The increase was particularly spectacular in Germany, where more than 140 million items were seized, compared with 15.5 million in 2005.

The Berlin Government has made the protection of intellectual property rights one of its top priorities. In one raid, the authorities confiscated 100 containers of fake sports shoes in Hamburg.

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