Oil laundering, cigarette smuggling racket busted

An oil laundering and cigarette smuggling racket has been busted in Co Monaghan.

Storage tanks, lorries and an oil tanker were discovered in the seizure by Customs at Castleshane.

The plant at Castleshane had the capacity to launder up to 50,000 litres of diesel every week, worth around €1.3m to the Revenue Commissioners a year.

During the search a million contraband sovereign cigarettes were discovered, worth another €230,000 to the Revenue Commissioners.