Two million cigarettes seized

Cigarettes worth more than €700,000 were seized in Dublin and Louth, a Customs and Excise spokesman revealed tonight.

Around two million cigarettes were recovered after two consignments were smuggled into the country from Poland via car ferry.

One consignment was taken to a warehouse in Co Louth at the weekend, where a man in his 40s was arrested this afternoon and later released without charge.

A second consignment arrived tonight at Dublin Port.

A Customs and Excise spokesman said both batches had been sent to a non-existent Irish company.

The seizures represent a potential loss of revenue of around €550,000.

A file on the man is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

This latest customs investigation comes as officers continue to probe the origins of this week’s multi-million euro drugs haul off the Cork coast, the biggest in the state’s history.

A man in his 20s tonight remained in Garda custody in connection with the incident, while a second man, in his late 40s or early 50s, was under armed guard at Bantry General Hospital.

A hunt is under way for two other members of what is believed could be an English drug trafficking gang.