REVENUE’S CUSTOMS officers have made another multimillion-euro seizure of cigarettes after a 40ft container labelled “paper products” at Dublin Port was found to contain eight million cigarettes valued at €3.1 million.
The haul was found at the port in a container that had come from Spain on Monday. A truck and container registered in the North were also confiscated when Customs officers seized the haul.
The cigarettes were of the Regal, Richman and Hoop brands.
They were being smuggled into the State without any taxes or duties being paid and would have represented a loss to the exchequer of some €2.5 million had they been sold here at their recommended retail price.
The latest haul brings to about 87 million the number of cigarettes seized by Customs so far this year. These hauls have had a collective value of €33.2 million.
Many organised crime gangs involved in the drugs trade have moved into cigarette smuggling in recent years in a bid to replace the drug-related income they have lost since the recession began.
Garda sources believe gangs have lost money in the recession as people’s disposable incomes have fallen and demand for recreational drugs has decreased.
Smuggling cigarettes is seen as a lucrative activity because demand for contraband and counterfeit cigarettes is at an all-time high due to the recession.