Eight million illegal cigarettes seized in Dublin port
Print13 July 2018
Almost eight million illegal cigarettes were seized by Revenue on Wednesday, during an operation at Dublin Port.
The cigarettes, which have a potential retail value of over €4 million, were found in a shipping container coming from The Netherlands. They had been branded ‘Gold Classic’ and ‘Business Royals’.
The market for illegal cigarettes in Ireland is worth hundreds of millions of euros.
Earlier this year, gardaí arrested 11 people working in an illegal cigarette factory in County Louth, which hosted machinery capable of producing up to 250,000 cigarettes in an hour.
Smuggling in general is having an adverse effect on retailers in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Last month, Retail Ireland reported that nine-out-of-ten retailers on both sides of the border believed that smuggling was damaging their profits.
As a result of such concerns, the targeting of illegal cigarette sales is a high-priority for Revenue, who regularly conduct intelligence-based operations and “random checks at retail outlets, markets and private and commercial premises,” according to their website.
These checks include street-level exercises.
Revenue want businesses or members of the public with any information about the smuggling or sale of illegal tobacco products to contact them on their confidential phone number at 1800 295 295.
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