CUSTOMS OFFICIALS are investigating a gang behind the largest haul of smuggled cigarettes seized in the Republic so far this year.
A container full of Regal-branded contraband cigarettes valued at €3.5 million was found in Dublin Port. Revenue officials said the cost to the exchequer would have been about €2.95 million if the haul had come on the black market.
There were 8.25 million cigarettes in the shipment. They were described on the manifest as aluminium foil trays. The cigarettes arrived from China last Friday on a freighter full of containers. A search of some of the containers identified the contraband in one and a surveillance operation, codenamed Operation Monarch, was immediately put in place.
When a truck and trailer came to collect the shipment Revenue's Custom Excise officers moved in. The vehicle and trailer were confiscated and a number of people were interviewed. At least one search of a private residence was also carried out as part of a follow-up operation.
A spokeswoman for Revenue said its investigations were continuing nationally and internationally. The haul brings to 53 million the number of contraband or smuggled cigarettes, valued at approximately €22 million, seized here since the start of the year.
In May over three million cigarettes, valued at €1.2 million, were seized in freight disembarked from a ferry at Rosslare, Co Wexford.