Smuggled cigarettes seized at Rosslare

Customs officers have seized three million illegally smuggled cigarettes at Rosslare Harbour in Co Wexford.

The cigarettes were discovered last night hidden in a consignment of tyres that had originated in Portugal and was bound for Northern Ireland.

An articulated tractor unit and the 40-foot container containing the cigarettes were also seized by customs officers.

The cigarettes, if sold on the black market in Ireland, could have represented a loss of €702,000 for the Irish Exchequer.