ALL NINE men who were arrested in connection with the seizure of tens of millions of cigarettes in Greenore Port, Co Louth, on Tuesday have been released.
A statement from the Garda Press Office last evening confirmed the release, and said a file was being prepared for the DPP.
The nine men include seven Irish nationals aged between 19 and mid-40s, one Lithuanian in his 50s and one Ukrainian in his 40s. They were held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984, at Garda stations in counties Louth and Monaghan.
Customs and Revenue officers yesterday began the painstaking task of stripping the vessel containing the haul, the MV Anne Scan, and counting what officials suspect amount to 120 million cigarettes, worth about €50 million.
The ship is a general cargo vessel some 80m in length which is German-owned but was chartered from the Philippines.
Customs and Revenue officers brought it to Dublin Port for examination. They expect it will be tomorrow before they have removed all the cargo and examined it.
By yesterday evening they had identified five brands of cigarettes in the haul: Palace, Chelsea, Superking, LB and Regal.
The seizure avoids an estimated loss of €40 million to Revenue.
The potential profit to the smugglers is thought to be about €30 million. A packet of 20 costs no more than 50 cent in the Philippines, where the vessel originated, and the price on the black market in the UK is close to €5.
The cigarettes could have cost the smugglers as much as €3 million, to be paid upfront. About 10 per cent of the profit is normally calculated as the cost of organising such a shipment.
The haul is thought to be the largest single seizure in Europe. In Belgium last year, 80 million smuggled cigarettes were recovered.
The seizure was welcomed by the European Commission Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf).
Its director general, Franz-Hermann Bruner, said: “The Irish authorities have struck a hard blow at international organised crime and Olaf will provide all the support necessary in this important investigation.”
A team from Olaf, along with Customs and Revenue investigators from Dublin, is expected to visit the Philippines.
Speculation continues as to who arranged the haul, with the finger being pointed at organised criminals and also those with links to the Real IRA. It is now believed that a group of up to five “investors” put up the money for the shipment. Some have associations with dissident republican groupings.
Most of those suspected of leading the operation have been involved in previous smuggling operations.