‘Epidemic’ of illegal tobacco as 8m cigarettes seized
Cahill’s in Wickham St has been trading for over 150 years. Owner, Eleanor Purcell, said: “I stock up to a 100 different brands of cigarettes. But now I find I am being driven out of the cigarette market due to the huge increase in sales of smuggled cigarettes in the city. I estimate that over the past few years my cigarette trade — which constituted 80% of my business — has plummeted to 20% of my business.”
It comes as Customs and Revenue revealed that 8m cigarettes with a retail value of over €4m were seized last weekend in Dublin Port. Detection dog Casey uncovered “the elaborate concealment of cigarettes” hidden within the glazing spaces of window frames on a Latvian-registered truck which was disembarking a ship.
