Customs ‘see and hear it all’ from smugglers

Hiding cash on their wives’ bodies and concocting incredible, and often multiple, claims about the origins of the money are among the tactics used by people smuggling proceeds of crime out of the country.

Customs officers have seen it all, but their jobs are made very difficult by the fact that more often than not the people doing the smuggling are “complete unknowns”.

Of the 33 cases in 2015, where a total of €1.157m was forfeited by the State, the case of Andrei Piatlitski is one of the more unusual.