Some seven million smuggled cigarettes with a retail value of €2.7 million have been seized by Customs officers at Dublin Port.
The cigarettes arrived in the port from Zeebrugge, Belgium, in a shipment labelled “non-hazardous groupage”, and was discovered during a routine scan.
An Irish-registered commercial vehicle and trailer were seized, and the driver was interviewed. Investigations are ongoing both nationally and internationally, said a spokeswoman for Revenue.
The contraband cigarettes would have represented a loss to the State of €2.4 million. The seizure brings the number of cigarettes seized this year to 66 million, with a retail value of €28 million.
Retail Ireland welcomed the seizure but said it was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Retail Ireland estimates that almost 30 per cent of the Irish cigarette market is made up of illicit product.”
