A fuel laundering plant blamed for polluting a lake in Co Armagh could have netted its owners almost £10,000 (€12,600) a week, Customs officials said today.
A red diesel leak last week into Lowry’s Lake, Hamiltonsbawn, led inspectors to the nearby farm.
Revenue & Customs officers believe the site was capable of producing 21,000 litres of illicit fuel a week.
Detection officers were called to the fishery run by Armagh Fisheries last Friday, after contact from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).
A Customs spokesman said: “Further investigations revealed a fuel laundering plant at a nearby farm which had an estimated output of 3,000 litres a day.”
Laundered fuel is red diesel which has been filtered through chemicals or acids to remove the government marker. Chemicals and acids remain, damaging fuel pumps in diesel cars.
Agency staff and anglers worked until late in the evening deploying the oil-absorbing booms in a tributary feeding the lake in an attempt to stop its spread. No fish nor wildlife died.
An NIEA spokesman said the incident was being treated as criminal.
PA