A MAN awaiting trial after customs officers smashed an alleged cigarette smuggling scam in Suffolk has been injured in a gun battle which left two people dead. He is believed to have been caught in crossfire during the shoot-out in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

A MAN awaiting trial after customs officers smashed an alleged cigarette smuggling scam in Suffolk has been injured in a gun battle which left two people dead.

It is believed Colin Berry was injured during an exchange of fire during an argument over a business deal in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The shoot-out happened at the Hotel Intercontinental ,where Berry was understood to be protecting a US national and his Afghan wife.

Berry is believed to have suffered minor injuries in the crossfire together with a US national who was sitting nearby during the incident on February 26.

The identities of the two Afghan men who were shot dead have not been released, and nor has a possible motive for the shooting.

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. A provisional date for Berry's trial has been set for March 24.

Berry's whereabouts or the exact nature of the injuries he sustained in the shootout, are currently unknown.

The charges followed a seven month undercover operation by customs investigators in December 2000 in which seven million cigarettes were smuggled through Felixstowe, Britain's largest container port.

The cigarettes had arrived from the Middle East on the vessel Maersk Toledo on November 30, 2000, in boxes of industrial wipes.

Berry, of Dale Close, Stanway, was arrested after an undercover surveillance operation, headed by customs in Ipswich, in which officers swooped on Deben Freight Ltd based at Anglia Airpack in Rendlesham.>