LAST YEAR’S sharp rise in cigarette smuggling looks set to continue in 2010, with a massive haul of eight million cigarettes seized yesterday.

It has been a record-breaking year for illegal cigarette seizures - the largest coming at the end October when Customs officials recovered 120 million cigarettes in Greenore Port in Co Louth.

CUSTOMS officials are flying out to the Philippines in the coming days as part of a massive investigation into the smuggling of 120 million cigarettes into Ireland.

Customs officials said unloading and counting the cigarettes seized in Europe’s largest ever haul of smuggled cigarettes could take as long as two days.

Detectives were given more time today to question three men over Europe’s largest ever seizure of smuggled cigarettes.

THE largest seizure of contraband cigarettes in the history of the state was made in Greenore, Co Louth, yesterday on a ship carrying up to 120 million cigarettes, enough to flood the Irish market.

CRIME bosses were set to earn around €20 million profit if the consignment of 120 million cigarettes was not intercepted by the state.

A ship’s captain was tonight among nine men being quizzed by detectives after customs officials seized Europe’s largest ever haul of smuggled cigarettes.