Revenue’s Customs Service today announced it had seized contraband cigarettes and uncovered an oil-laundering facility in separate operations.
Customs seized seven million contraband cigarettes with an estimated retail value of €3 million and potential loss to the Exchequer of €2.5 million following a surveillance operation.
The cigarettes, which are believed to be counterfeit, were hidden in a 40ft container that arrived at Dublin Port from China via Rotterdam. The contents of the container were described as "ceramic tiles".
The operation, codenamed "Operation Marble" and spanning several days, resulted in the seizure of "Benson & Hedges" cigarettes and an articulated truck in Co Louth. Follow-up searches under warrant were conducted on two private premises in Co. Donegal earlier today.
Several people in Co Donegal and Co Louth have been interviewed. Investigations are ongoing both in the State and abroad, according to Customs.
So far this year, Customs have seized approximately 27 million cigarettes with an estimated retail value of €11.5 million.
Elsewhere, Customs officers today uncovered an underground oil laundering plant near Monaghan town. Officers from the service, assisted by gardaí from Monaghan and the Regional Response Unit, made the discovery this morning.
According to Customs, the facility had the capacity to launder an estimated ten million litres of fuel per year, with a potential loss to the Exchequer of approximately €6 million per year.
A total of 40,000 litres of laundered fuel, a lorry, four cars and a van were also seized at the plant. Other equipment was also dismantled on the farmland in Silverstream, about four miles outside the town, and taken away for examination.
Four men, two in their 50s and two in their 20s, have been questioned in relation to the find, but no arrests have been made.
Environmental officers are searching the site and surrounding areas for toxic sludge, a hazardous chemical by-product of the laundering process.
This is the third large oil laundering plant uncovered by Customs so far this year. Last month an underground plant with the capacity to launder an estimated 7.5 million litres of fuel a year was discovered in a yard near Hackballscross, Dundalk, Co Louth.
Additional reporting PA