Four held following cigarettes seizure

A massive consignment of smuggled cigarettes believed to be worth €3.2m was seized today during an undercover operation.

Customs officials tracked the 40-foot maritime container packed with eight million Benson and Hedges cigarettes to Co Tipperary after it arrived at Dublin Port last Friday.

Four men living in the Waterford area, aged between 45 and 65, were arrested during a joint raid with gardaí this afternoon at a commercial premises at Carrick-on-Suir and two follow-up searches on private homes.

They are being held under section four of the Criminal Justice Act at Clonmel and Cahir Garda stations.

The smugglers declared the container as containing furniture as they attempted to get it through Customs without being detected last weekend.

But after the authorities discovered the load, they allowed it to travel onwards to its destination while they kept it under surveillance in an investigation code-named Operation Maigret.

Customs officials and investigating gardaí from Clonmel and Waterford moved in when they saw the cigarettes being offloaded at the warehouse in Carrick-on-Suir.