Seizure was biggest of its kind in history of the European Union
That’s according to the Irish head of operations at Europe’s nerve centre for anti-fraud activity.
Austin Rowan, with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), said investigators would travel to Asia and track down where massive amounts of contraband had been sold.
“This is as far as we are aware the biggest seizure ever in the European Union. It’s that big, it’s enormous.”
Cigarette smuggling was spread right throughout the EU and not just in Ireland, added Mr Rowan who has spent 15 years fighting cigarette smuggling.
“The losses are enormous, we estimate several billions of euro every year in member state taxes and own resources. That’s money that goes to running the European Union.”
The EU anti-fraud agency had been working with Irish customs officers since the beginning of the international operation, codenamed ‘Operation Samhna’.
The attempt to bring the tens of millions of cigarettes ashore in such a large haul was not typical of smuggling attempts though, explained Mr Rowan.
“The criminal organisation behind this have put all their eggs in one basket.”
Since the late 1990s, smuggling gangs had changed their methods of bringing in batches of cigarettes, it was added.
“What they do now is they bring them in as small consignments hidden in freight ... and that’s much more difficult to detect.”
The Louth seizure was a change in tactic, the OLAF head of operations for cigarettes added.
The huge haul also gave an indication of the criminal gang behind the smuggling attempt, he said.
Irish customs officers will join officials from the European Anti-Fraud Office over the coming days and weeks in a separate mission to track down the cigarette sellers who sold the contraband to the gang.
“We’ll be sending a mission team to the Philippines with our Irish colleagues,” Mr Rowan told RTÉ radio. The quantity of cigarettes would have been a huge amount to buy in the Philippines and may have cost in the order of €1m, investigators think.
A significant international network of criminals must have been involved in helping get the haul of cigarettes to Ireland, added Mr Rowan, when the smuggling ship had stopped in Egypt and between the loading and unloading of its cargo.
