THREE people arrested after 860,000 cigarettes were seized in a police roadblock have been released.

Two vans carrying cigarettes with an outstanding duty of £120,000 were stopped on Monday at Junction 4 of the M65 in a joint police and customs crackdown.

But proceedings against the three people have been dropped because of insufficient evidence.

The vehicles were stopped as part of Operation Tumbrel, a joint operation between officers from the motorway unit and Eastern Division, as well as the Vehicle Inspectorate and departments of Social Security and Customs and Excise.

Matthew King of Customs and Excise today said the people had been released with no further lines of inquiry.

He added: "We need evidence that the drivers knew what they were carrying in the vans and in this case, there was insufficient evidence.

"The cigarettes have been taken off the streets and that is the main thing."

Operation Tumbrel was carried out on Monday between 8am and Tuesday at midday.

It aimed to improve standards of road safety and help prevent collisions, to home in on criminal activity and target transportation of contraband goods and illegal fuel.