Illegal cigarette trade has become even more lucrative than drug dealing

It’s a ‘win-win’ for criminals as the discovery of €1.5m in laundered money on a farm in Co Limerick indicates.

This shows that big criminals have moved into the more lucrative cigarette smuggling market; it’s less dangerous than drug dealing.

We are Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS), which represents almost 3,000 independent retailers in the fight against the black market. The incident, where a convicted drug dealer was found trying to vacuum pack and tumble dry cash that he had dug up, was further proof that such criminals are now involved in the illegal cigarette trade.