Over five tonnes of tobacco seized in Cork Port

Customs officers have seized more than 5,000kgs of roll-your-own tobacco concealed in a 20ft container in Cork Port.

The contraband had arrived by sea from Bangkok in Thailand, via Rotterdam.

A statement from the Revenue Commissioners said the tobacco was labelled as Golden Virginia, but was counterfeit and of inferior quality to the real thing.

A similar quantity of genuine tobacco would have a retail value of €1.25m, more than €1m of which would have gone to the Exchequer in customs duty, excise duty and VAT.