The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is disposing more than 200,000 cigarettes seized from incoming airline passengers.
The 1,073 cartons were taken because they are either illegal or beyond the allowable amount that could be brought into the CNMI.
The Customs director Joe Mafnas says it's only a fraction of the cigarettes the agency has confiscated over the past year.
Mr Mafnas says they want all the cigarettes they've confiscated incinerated but that would be too expensive so they will be cut and soaked in water before being dumped in landfill.
