Illegal cigarettes worth €4m seized at port

A MASSIVE haul of illegal cigarettes, worth an estimated €4 million, has been seized by customs officials at Dublin port.

The nine million black market stash was set to flood the British market. They were marked as Benson and Hedges, with a UK government health warning, and were in a container on a ship from China.

Customs officers, using so-called profiling techniques, uncovered the cigarettes in a cargo container marked disposable cups. No one has been arrested.

The seizure follows the recovery of about 28 million illegally-imported cigarettes, worth €11.8 million, in Dundalk, Co Louth, in February.

Retailers Against Smuggling, the representative group for Ireland’s tobacco retailers, last night praised the work of customs officials.

In a recent survey of RAS, 94% of its members described tobacco sales as being “vital” to their shop, and one in two said there would be redundancies if the high trend in smuggling continued.

In 2009, Ireland’s retailers collectively lost €692 million in lost sales from tobacco being sold illegally on the black market.

RAS national spokesman Benny Gilsenan emphasised that a greater clampdown on the illegal trade in Ireland was urgently required. “These cigarettes were destined for the black market here in Ireland and could’ve cost the jobs of hundreds of people in the retail sector,” he said.

“Customs are doing a fantastic job but more needs to be done by Government,” Mr Gilsenan said.