Customs seize 1.4m cigarettes at airport

CUSTOMS made their largest single seizure of smuggled cigarettes off a flight at the weekend during a major operation against a Baltic gang.

The haul of 600,000 cigarettes was confiscated by officers from passengers arriving at Dublin Airport from Riga, the Latvian capital, on Saturday morning.

Customs then recovered a further 800,000 cigarettes off three more flights from Riga on Monday and Tuesday.

Shay Doyle, Customs manager at Dublin Airport, said: “The flights, particularly the flight on Friday night/Saturday morning, appeared to be just packed with couriers, specifically there to courier cigarettes.”

He said the 1.4 million cigarettes, worth €483,000, were stuffed into passengers’ baggage. He said a medium bag would contain between 10,000 and 12,000 cigarettes, while a large bag could have up to 20,000 cigarettes packed in.

He said some bags were abandoned after the couriers suspected customs were on to them.

Mr Doyle said they would be preparing files for the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to between 15 and 20 people. Some are residents of Riga, while others work here, he said.

The cigarettes represented a potential revenue loss to the State of around €400,000. Two cars used to transport the cigarettes from Dublin Airport were also seized.

Mr Doyle said the gang — run by criminals in Riga — had a good distribution network for the entire country.

“The distribution is to Sunday markets and some shops. Intelligence is also telling us they’re sold at workplaces, building sites, where large ethnic groups congregate.”

The haul included Marlboro, L&M, Chesterfields and other lesser-known brands. Mr Doyle said the existence of the former brands presented a “worrying trend,” as they suggested the gang was moving into supplying the domestic market as well.

Mr Doyle estimated the Baltic gangs were making a profit of €10,000 on the sale of every 10,000 cigarettes.

He said there had been a further jump this year in cigarette smuggling through Dublin Airport, with 7.5m cigarettes seized so far, compared to 6.4m at the end of March 2006.

In addition, 350kg of tobacco had been intercepted, compared to just 64kg at the end of March last year.