Customs officers seize 18,500 cigarettes at Rosslare Port

Customs officials seized nearly 18,500 illegal cigarettes that smugglers were attempting to bring into the country at Rosslare Europort on Thursday.

The cigarettes had an estimated retail value of €13,120, which Revenue said represented a potential loss to the exchequer of €10,350.

The contraband was discovered during the search of a van which had disembarked in Co Wexford off a ferry from Cherbourg, France.

The van was registered in Slovakia, and a Slovakian national (40s) was questioned over the seizure.

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The cigarettes included the brands Benson & Hedges Gold, Benson & Hedges Silver, and L&M Blue.

X-ray scanner

The van had been searched as a result of routine profiling by Revenue officers, using a mobile X-ray scanner and a detector dog named Gus.

The large quantity of cigarettes had been concealed within the load of the van.

Earlier in the week, Revenue officers had seized 85 litres of wine, which had been stowed away in an unaccompanied trailer sent from France.

The trailer arrived at Rosslare Europort on Wednesday on a ferry from Cherbourg, and was discovered by Revenue’s mobile X-ray scanner.

The smuggled wine had a retail value of €1,000, which represented a potential loss to the exchequer of more than €550.

A spokeswoman for Revenue said investigations were ongoing in both cases. The seizures were part of Revenue’s “ongoing operations targeting the importation of illegal cigarettes and alcohol,” she said.