REVENUE AND Customs officers have seized €3.78 million worth of cigarettes in a major operation against smugglers.
The cigarettes came in a ship’s container from Egypt on Friday morning and were declared on the manifest as “bedroom furniture”.
The container was placed under surveillance by Customs and the cigarettes were tracked from Dublin Port to Dundalk, Co Louth.
There the container, along with a truck and trailer, was stopped and 10.59 million Gold Classic cigarettes were recovered.
The cigarettes had been packed into cardboard boxes filling the load-on, load-off ship container from floor to ceiling. A 32-year-old Irishman was arrested by gardaí and later released without charge.
The operation, which was called Cleo, has brought the amount of cigarettes seized by Customs officers to more than 60 million already this year with a a retail value of €25.5 million.
On Friday, Customs officials at Cork airport seized more than 85,500 cigarettes with a street value of about €36,000. They were found in the luggage of two Polish men who had arrived on a flight from Warsaw.
A statement from the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers Advisory Committee (ITMAC), which represents the tobacco industry, said the raids illustrated a “disturbing trend” where smugglers were increasingly bringing in and selling counterfeit cigarettes, usually made in underground factories in China.
“All forms of tobacco smuggling undermines Government revenues and tobacco regulations and damages the livelihood of local legitimate retailers,” the statement added.
The newly-formed Retailers Against Smuggling also welcomed the seizure. Spokesman Benny Gilsenan described it as “fantastic news for the legitimate Irish tobacco retailer”.
“These cigarettes were destined for the black market here and would have taken money out of the till of retailers across the country. I am adamant that jobs will be saved as a result of this seizure.”
