Bumper sales of cheese and onion crisps and bottles of Coca Cola were not enough to prevent profits tumbling at Mountjoy jail’s million-euro tuck shop.

COUNTERFEIT cigarettes 10 times more carcinogenic than shop-sold brands and containing traces of urine have been seized in a major crackdown.

THREE million illegal cigarettes worth €1.2 million were seized yesterday in a joint operation by customs officials and gardaí.

CIGARETTE smuggling is becoming a very serious problem in Ireland because a combination of the highest price in the European Union and the economic downturn is making it very attractive to smugglers.