Record year for Customs seizures

It has been a record-breaking year for illegal cigarette seizures - the largest coming at the end October when Customs officials recovered 120 million cigarettes in Greenore Port in Co Louth.

Authorities have also revealed that 63 batches of a powerful weight loss drug traditionally used by African bushmen on hunting trips were seized during the year.

Other seizures in 2009 included two horns from the Gemsbok African antelope and body parts from two dead monkeys at a sorting office in Drogheda.

Experts believe the bushmeat had been sent as gifts from Nigeria and was intended to be eaten as a delicacy over Christmas.

Customs use X-ray scanners, sniffer dogs and risk profiling to check packages for breaches.