GARDAI and Customs have seized smuggled cigarettes valued at £250,000 belonging to one of the major Dublin criminals under investigation for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin.
The 800,000 cigarettes were seized in a lorry which was driven from Holland late last week. It was parked in the industrial estate behind the Red Cow Inn, on the Naas Road, on Saturday.
The lorry had been followed by Customs officers since it arrived from the Continent at the end of last week.
The criminal figure, who has substantial business investments, is a millionaire and much of his wealth has come from smuggling tobacco and cigarettes into Ireland.
Gardai say the man, in his 40s, virtually controls the smuggled tobacco trade in Ireland. In the past two years, his smuggled cigarettes and rolling tobacco have flooded into Dublin. They are sold by street traders openly on city centre streets at prices well below tax paid tobacco.
The man under investigation buys the cigarettes and tobacco from warehouses in Schiphol Freeport, Amsterdam, with cash and arranges for the contraband to be smuggled into Ireland on container lorries.
He is known to have threatened Ms Guerin and is described by gardai as a violent and unpredictable criminal. He has served prison sentences for robbery and other crimes and was released after his last sentence less than three years ago.
It is believed he was involved from prison but increasingly moved into the bulk smuggling of tobacco. He has invested millions of pounds in legitimate front businesses in the past 18 months.
Meanwhile, the Garda investigation into Ms Guerin's murder may help gardai launch a major offensive against organised crime in Ireland. Information gathered by detectives is being correlated and is providing the Garda with new insights into the activities of Dublin's gangsters.
While some five or six major criminals remain the leading suspects in the Guerin investigation, information on the activities of about 150 Dublin criminals is being assembled.
It is believed the criminals might have hired republican gunmen to carry out the assassination.
Senior gardai have become concerned, however, that the large amount of publicity surrounding suspects in the investigation might jeopardise cases taken against them.