Russian smugglers came up with an original way to bring cigarettes into the West by hiding thousands of them inside hollowed out tree trunks . The cigarettes had been manufactured in Belarus and were heading to the address of a private company in Poland from where they were supposed to be shipped on to Germany and the UK . But they were stopped by the Ukrainian custom officers at the Yagodyn checkpoint located on the Ukrainian side of Ukrainian-Polish border . Ukrainian customs officials remove hundreds of packet of cigarettes which Russian smugglers tried to sneak across the border into Poland in hollowed out tree trunks . Fifty-five of the trunks had been hollowed out and their ends replaced to carry the massive illicit load . The cigarettes had been made in Belarus and were heading to the address of a private company in Poland . Border guard spokesman Arkhip Glazkov said : 'As a result of a random check we discovered one of the trunks appeared to have been tampered with , and after looking more closely it was found that the tree trunk and been hollowed out and packed with cigarettes , and then the end of the trunk had been replaced to cover up the crime . 'In fact it was almost impossible to see the difference , but officers noticed that some of the logs seemed incredibly light compared to the others , and it was then that they discovered the fraud . ' In total they recovered 25,000 packets of cigarettes hidden inside 27 tons of timber where 55 of the tree trunks turned out to have been tampered with . The find came just days after a hapless smuggler was caught trying to sneak an incredible 146 iPhones through Chinese customs by strapping them to his body . Chan Shih , 30 , was found with 126 phones taped around his waist and another 20 around his legs after officers spotted him walking strangely . The 25,000 packets of cigarettes were bound for Germany and then the UK before they were intercepted . Border guard spokesman Arkhip Glazkov said : 'As a result of a random check we discovered one of the trunks appeared to have been tampered with ' Twenty-seven tons of timber had been tampered with in the audacious attempted smuggling operation . It was almost impossible for guards to see the difference between the doctored logs and the regular ones . Border guard spokesman Arkhip Glazkov said : officers noticed that some of the logs seemed incredibly light compared to the others ' He had been travelling from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland via the Louhu checkpoint in Shenzhen , reported People 's Daily Online . A customs spokesman said : 'This is the fifth time he has been caught smuggling since 2011 . 'In total he has tried to bring in 511 iPhones and 127 CPUs , all of which he strapped to parts of his body . 'He needs to think of a new way of doing it as it is getting a bit obvious . ' The man was arrested and is now awaiting trial . Meanwhile two men have been jailed for smuggling 28 tonnes of cannabis into the UK - enough to get every person in the country stoned . Steven McDonald , 32 , and John Wright , 66 , were part of a crime network that trafficked drugs from the Netherlands on an 'industrial scale ' . The cannabis they imported as part of the seven-year conspiracy would have had a street value in excess of £80million . At Luton Crown Court on Friday Wright was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison and McDonald was handed an eight-year sentence . The haul was recovered the other side of the country from the war-torn east . A February cease-fire in Ukraine 's continuing civil war between government and rebel forces has eased hostilities . A border guard uses a chainsaw to cut into one doctored log . Another 54 had been meddled with .
Russian smugglers tried to sneak load into Poland at Yagodyn checkpoint . They were supposed to be shipped on to UK on the way to the Germany . Random check revealed some had been expertly tampered with by crooks . Some 'seemed incredibly light compared to others ' so fraud was uncovered . Twenty-five-thousand packets were concealed inside 27 tons of timber . Fifty-five of the tree trunks had been doctored and the ends replaced .