20 million contraband cigarettes seized in Dundalk

Customs officers have seized a massive amount of illegal cigarettes from a ship docked in Dundalk. Twenty million cigarettes, worth £3m in lost tax revenue, are understood to have been seized.

However, it's believed that it could take as much as a week for customs officers to establish the exact value of the haul. The ship was boarded by custom officers from Dundalk at 3am, after a surveillance operation co-ordinated by the Irish Navy.

It's thought the cigarettes were expertly hidden in centre of bales of timber. The crew of the ship are currently being interviewed and customs officers are satisfied they have stopped the smuggled cigarettes from reaching the black market in Ireland and the UK.