Over €2.4m worth of tobacco seized at Dublin Port

Revenue officers seized over 154,000 unstamped cigarettes and 46kgs of unstamped tobacco with the assistance of detector dog Bill. Picture: Revenue

Revenue officers have seized over four tonnes of tobacco at Dublin Port in the latest in a number of operations carried out targeting the the supply and sale of illegal tobacco products.

It was found in boxes labelled 'wood briquettes' during routine profiling yesterday.

The tobacco contained in the boxes, which had originated in Germany, has an estimated retail value of over €2.4 million representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of around €2m.

In a separate operation over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, officers seized over 154,000 unstamped cigarettes and 46kgs of unstamped tobacco.

Following the search of a number of premises in Co Monaghan, carried out under warrant and with the help of detector dog Bill, illegal cigarettes and tobacco from Belgium and Italy were discovered.

Revenue officers seized cigarettes branded 'Minsk Capital' and 'NZ' and tobacco branded 'Turner' over the course of the searches in the Castleblayney, Carrickmacross and Clones areas.

The cigarettes and tobacco have a combined estimated retail value of €116,000 representing a loss to the Exchequer of over €92,000.

A man, aged in his 40s was interviewed in relation to these seizures along with a number of men aged in their 30s and 40s.

Seizures made this week come after 9,000 cigarettes and 21kgs of tobacco were discovered at Dublin Airport over the weekend.

The cigarettes, branded 'Kent' and 'Dunhill' were discovered in the checked baggage of a Romanian man who had disembarked a flight from Bacau, Romania.

The tobacco, branded 'Red Line CC50', was found in the checked baggage of an Irish man who had gotten off a flight from Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

The combined retail value of the cigarettes and tobacco is around €19,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of €15,500.