€1m of cigarettes seized in crackdown on Real IRA scam

CIGARETTES seized during a crackdown on a Real IRA smuggling operation would have been sold on the street for nearly more than €1m.

The dissident republican organisation was set to rake in hundreds of thousands in profits from the sale of the brand-name cigarettes before the raids on premises in Amsterdam and Co Monaghan.

Six people, including senior members of the group, were still being questioned last night, four in Ireland and two in The Netherlands. The four detained here include a 38-year-old woman and are being held in Drogheda, Ashbourne, Co Meath, and Dundalk. About 100,000 packets of 20 Regal, Sovereign and LND were discovered in a raid on a shed in Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, on Sunday evening. They were packed in over 50 boxes that normally contained computer hard-drive cases.