Sources said the watches were declared as socks hailing from China. The fake watches were found after Customs officials first checked the ship’s manifest for the point of origin and the items declared.

Sources said that the ship entered the Freeport on 6 April and departed from an unspecified country in the Far East. The items were then due to be transported to Greece.

Customs then cross-checked the weight of the container against the “rule of thumb” weights they normally associate with various cargoes.

They were then scanned by a Customs VACIS machine. The machine scans items according to their densities. VACIS scans the items and if there is a discrepancy between the density image of the cargo and that declared on the manifest, Customs investigates.

In fact, the smuggled items were hidden right in the middle of the container and were detected by VACIS. The VACIS machine was donated by the United States. Subsequent investigations unearthed 47 cases

containing approximately 300 watches each.

The fake Rolexes were of varying models, both for men and women. Sources said that although the items were destined for Greece, some could have ended up on the local market if they had not been intercepted. The source said that the find was down to the expertise of the Maltese Customs officials.

“The systems are top-of-the-range and have been in use for a couple of years now. Our officials are beginning to show good levels of expertise and that allows us to make more hauls like this,” he said. The source also said that without the close cooperation of the Freeport, such finds would not be as common. In the past five weeks, Customs have worked on no fewer than 13 anti-smuggling operations.