Customs officials seized a record 217 million smuggled cigarettes last year, almost twice the number found in 2013, the AD reported on Monday.

Most, the paper said, were brought into the country via Rotterdam port.

A packet of 20 cigarettes currently costs €11.10 in the Netherlands, and research suggests that an increasing number of smokers are turning to the black market or buying their tobacco products in other countries.

Some cigarettes are brought into the Netherlands by day trippers or people who have holidayed abroad, but by far the most are smuggled in via air and sea cargo shipments, the AD said.

It is legal to bring 800 cigarettes from another EU country into the Netherlands. From outside the EU, the legal limit is 200, or 10 packets.

The biggest find last year consisted of 27 million cigarettes, discovered in a sea container in Rotterdam port. Most smuggled cigarettes, the customs office says, come from Asia and the Middle East.

The cigarettes, known as “illicit whites” in official jargon, are considered illegal in the Netherlands because the brand is not officially recognised within the EU.