Cigarettes worth €1m seized after surveillance operation

MORE than three million contraband cigarettes were seized at Dublin Port yesterday following a huge surveillance operation.

The smuggled cigarettes had a retail value of more than €1 million and would have meant a loss to the exchequer of €880,000.

The 3.3 million cigarettes were found concealed in the bases of two flat-rack containers, which arrived off a ship from Saudi Arabia into Dublin on May 25.

A spokesman for Revenue’s Customs Service said the haul was the result of a “lengthy surveillance operation”, code-named Operation Jacob.

“The containers were stacked one on top of the other for ease of transportation. Surveillance was maintained on the containers over a two-week period, which included observation of the containers being delivered to a rural area of Co Tipperary last weekend, when officers finally moved in on a premises,” said the spokesman.

He said three people had been questioned in relation to the attempted smuggling operation.

The spokesman added: “Smuggling of cigarettes in flat-rack containers is now recognised internationally as a particularly effective method used by sophisticated groups to smuggle contraband. Flat-rack containers do not normally attract the attention of law enforcement, as they appear at face value to be empty container bases, ie empty trailers.”

The haul follows the seizure on Wednesday night of nearly 174,000 contraband cigarettes at Rosslare Europort. The Marlboro brand cigarettes had a retail value of more than €61,000, with a potential loss of revenue of almost €48,000.

The haul, concealed in a trailer, was detected by the Customs Container Scanner, said the spokesman.

“The cigarettes originated in Poland and had arrived in Ireland by car ferry via Cherbourg, France. A Polish man, 48, was questioned and released.”