Tobacco gangs using truck drivers’ cabs to smuggle cash

Bag with €300k seized as Customs reveal criminal gangs are stashing money in foreign-bound trucks

Tobacco smuggling gangs are hiding plastic bags stuffed with hundreds of thousands of euro in cash in the cabins of foreign-bound trucks in a new system to siphon off their millions.

Customs officers have identified the trend after making a number of seizures, in one case involving a bag containing almost €300,000 in cash.

In the vast majority of cases, the truck drivers claim they have no idea how the bag of cash got into their cabin — but Customs suspect they either do it for a small payment or under duress.

In another trend, criminal networks, particularly drug gangs, are breaking down their dirty cash into small sums of between €6,000 and €10,000, to limit the amount being caught.

Figures provided to the Irish Examiner show that since 2005 Customs have seized more than €14m in cash that they believe was the proceeds of crime or intended for use in criminal conduct. This includes the seizure of €1.62m cash in 2015; €916,000 in 2014; €1.34m in 2013; and €1.2m in 2012.

Customs have successfully secured court orders forfeiting €1.157m in 2015; €474,000 in 2014; €385,000 in 2013; and €714,000 in 2012.

Officers have noticed two trends in the last three years. Andrew Keyes of the Customs Cash Investigations Unit said: “We have seen a pattern of commercial truck drivers going out of the port and large amounts of cash are concealed in the cabin.”

Customs have made at least four major seizures, totalling almost €600,000, in the last three years.

Mr Keyes said the cash is typically stashed inside a plastic bag and hidden in some part of the cabin.

“The driver denies all knowledge of the cash, but they are probably doing if for a small payment or under duress from others,” he said.

Mr Keyes, the unit’s senior investigator, added: “It may well be organised crime and they can afford to take the odd hit and do not come forward to claim the money.” Cases include:

• €290,000 seized from the cabin of a truck at Dublin Port on July 9, 2015.
• €168,000 seized at Dublin Port on October 20, 2014 inside a Tesco carrier bag in the cabin of a truck and forfeited on June 25, 2015.
• €46,000 seized at Dublin Port on June 1, 2013 in a package inside a truck cabin, forfeited on April 15, 2015.
• €81,800 seized at Dublin Port on June 22, 2013 in a package in the cabin of a truck, and forfeited on December 9, 2014.

In a seizure targeting a tobacco and alcohol smuggler, €278,000 in cash was seized inside a plastic bag at a mobile home at Raskeagh, Dundalk Upper, Co Louth, in July 2013.

Also seized were 32,000 unstamped cigarettes and four unregistered vehicles.

Mr Keyes said they have also seen an increase in the number of people taking out sums of between €6,400 and €10,000. He said in many cases the people are under the mistaken belief the threshold for undeclared cash is €10,000 (it’s actually €6,348) but that drug gangs may be breaking down their load into small amounts.

He said gangs also use a tactic called ‘smurfing’, such as splitting €10,000 between two people. He said if they can link the two people they can seize the cash. There were two identified smurfing cases in both 2012 and 2013, three in 2014 and five in 2015.