Revenue's customs and excise service has seized one of its biggest consignments yet of contraband cigarettes at Dublin Port.
Some 4.5 million cigarettes were seized in a container being unloaded from a ship yesterday. Valued at €1.34 million, if they had gone on sale here they would have cost Revenue €1.17 million in forgone taxes and duties.
However, the service is working on the theory the haul was not destined for the Irish market, believing the cigarettes were to be transported from Dublin via another cargo vessel.
The cigarettes were found in a container behind televisions in cardboard boxes. The freight had been arranged so the television sets obscured the cigarettes.
Nobody had been arrested in connection with the haul last night, but investigations were continuing. The container originated in the port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates.