Customs seize 10m black market cigarettes worth €4.6m

One of the largest ever hauls of black market cigarettes has been recovered by Customs.

The truck-load of illicit tobacco — known as cheap whites and branded Excellence — was concealed in a lorry supposedly containing tyres passing through Dublin Port.

There were 9.6 million cigarettes inside, with a retail value of about €4.5 million which, if they had made their way to the streets, would have cost the Exchequer €3.8 million.

Revenue Customs officers analysed the truck using a specialist mobile X-ray scanner machine after picking it out in routine profiling.

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The smuggled cargo had arrived in the country on Tuesday on a ship from Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

“Revenue continues to target the supply of illicit tobacco products with a view to disrupting the supply chain, seizing the illicit product and prosecuting those responsible,” a spokeswoman said. –PA