Cigarettes and tobacco products worth more than €100,000 were seized by gardaí and Revenue in two separate operations on Thursday.
In the first officers searched a premises in the Dublin 7 area, where they found 89,000 cigarettes, 39.4kg of “roll your own” tobacco and €4,600 in cash. The contraband, of various brands, has an estimated retail value of more than €94,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of approximately €74,000.
Two men, in their 50s and 70s and two women, in their 30s and 50s, were questioned.
A separate operation at a premises in Co Mayo uncovered approximately 8,100 cigarettes and a small quantity of “roll your own” tobacco, as well as €2,320 in cash. These products have an estimated retail value of more than €6,100, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of approximately €4,800. A man in his 50s was questioned.
Both operations were the result of intelligence received and were assisted by specially-trained sniffer dogs.
On Friday Revenue officers were granted three-month cash detention orders in respect of both seizures in the District Court.
The operations were part of Revenue’s ongoing targeting of the shadow economy and the supply of illegal tobacco products.
