Seizures of illegal tobacco fall by 56%

Seizures of illegal cigarettes have fallen 56% over the past four years, despite a continuing strong black market for smuggled tobacco.

Figures supplied by Revenue show almost 95.6m illegal cigarettes worth €43.3m were recovered last year.

However, it is the lowest amount of illegal tobacco seized since 2007, and far short of the record 218.5m cigarettes recovered in 2009, valued at €92.1m.