100,000 counterfeit cigarettes seized

COUNTERFEIT cigarettes 10 times more carcinogenic than shop-sold brands and containing traces of urine have been seized in a major crackdown.

Five people, including a 75-year-old woman and a man in his 60s, have been questioned by Customs officers following raids on 11 houses on the northside of Cork city.

Officers recovered packets of John Player Blue and Benson & Hedges, which had counterfeit Irish excise duty stamps on them and were made in China.