Four million smuggled cigarettes bound for North
The ‘Sovereign’ branded cigarettes were hidden inside a container of wood stoves which arrived from Poland. Around 19,000 cigarettes were hidden in each stove, potentially losing the Revenue Commissioners €900,000 in revenue. Customs officials also seized an articulated lorry which had arrived to pick up the consignment.
The cigarettes were believed to be destined for Northern Ireland, where they could be transferred to mainland Britain.
Cigarette smuggling gangs on both sides of the Border are now using Ireland as a backdoor to target the lucrative British black market.
Britain has one of the highest excise rates on cigarettes in the world and one in five of all its cigarettes are smuggled.
In April, more than nine million cigarettes were discovered in two containers in Dublin port. According to the Revenue, the brands of cigarettes seized and other information would indicate that the cigarettes were destined for the British market. And last week, customs officials seized 300,000 cigarettes hidden on a coal ship at New Ross, Co Wexford.
“Cigarette smuggling from the North is an issue, although it is not the biggest way of smuggling cigarettes into Britain. We do work very closely with our counterparts in the gardaí and the Revenue Commissioners and we have had some massive seizures in the North,” Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise spokesman Phil Rodgers said.
Although cigarette smuggling to Britain has traditionally been the preserve of the paramilitaries, other criminal gangs have been attracted.
“Intelligence is crucial for us and we are trying to concentrate on the bigger impact seizures and starve off the supply. But other seizures can be detected at ports using the more traditional methods,” Mr Rodgers said.
Customs officials in the North have been equipped with new technology such as the Heimann Cargo Scanner, a large lorry with an X-ray arm which can examine a sea container in a matter of minutes.
Customs officials here have X-ray scanners for personal luggage and are in the process of buying container scanners.
Smuggled cigarettes here were traditionally sold by street traders in well known areas like Henry Street in Dublin. But this has dwindled with the increase of close circuit television (CCTV).
“I think the practice is very much diminished. It’s not done openly any more, it’s by word of mouth,” a Garda spokesman said.
According to the Revenue Commissioners’ annual report, there were 4,024 seizures of smuggled cigarettes in 2002, compared to 2,291 in 2001. The seizures in 2002 had a retail value of €20.4m, compared to €40m in 2001.
