Truck carrying 4.1m smuggled cigarettes stopped in Dublin Port

Revenue says haul would have been worth more than €1.9m if sold in the shops

Photograph issued by Irish Revenue & Customs of some of the massive consignment of illegal cigarettes which has been stopped by Customs officers at Dublin Port  after they picked a truck out using routine profiling. Photograph: Irish Revenue & Customs/PA Wire
Photograph issued by Irish Revenue & Customs of some of the massive consignment of illegal cigarettes which has been stopped by Customs officers at Dublin Port after they picked a truck out using routine profiling. Photograph: Irish Revenue & Customs/PA Wire

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.

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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 .