Truck carrying 4.1m smuggled cigarettes stopped in Dublin Port

A massive consignment of illegal cigarettes has been stopped by Customs officers after they picked a truck out using routine profiling.

The lorry carrying a 15m container supposed to be full of rice cakes was searched at Dublin Port and 4.1 million cigarettes were discovered.

The packets were branded MG, Viceroy and Marhaba and had been imported from Rotterdam.

The Revenue Customs service said the cargo was seen using a special X-ray scanner for trucks.

The cigarettes would have been worth more than €1.9 million in the shops and if sold on the streets they would have represented a loss to the Exchequer of more than €1.6 million .