Some 250,000 cigarettes have been seized by customs officers at Dublin airport in what they described as a "highly organised" smuggling operation.
Officers from Revenue's Customs Service seized the cigarettes from passengers arriving on a flight from Riga, Latvia, yesterday, a statement said.
"'Operation Swift'" was high profile operation targeting passengers arriving from the Latvian capital," the statement said.
"The flight arrived with up to 30 couriers, each carrying varying volumes of contraband, from 5,000 cigarettes upwards."
Customs officers said this was a "highly organised attempt to smuggle a large quantities of cigarettes into the State".
They said that in their "ongoing battle" with cigarette smuggling from the Baltic states, they have so far seized a total of 32 million cigarettes with an estimated retail value of €11.6 million. Some 17 million of those were seized from people arriving from Riga.
The potential loss of tax revenue to the State is €8.8 million to-date this year, the Customs service said.