CUSTOMS OFFICERS and gardaí have arrested 10 people and seized cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and cash as part of an operation targeting Irish and international smugglers operating in the Cork and Kerry region.
The seizures, in the period over the weekend and since, have led to the arrests of people believed by gardaí and Customs to have been selling drugs and contraband in Cork and Kerry, or using Cork as an entry route into the Republic.
On Tuesday night, Customs officers working as part of an intelligence-led operation stopped a car in the village of Barraduff near Killarney, Co Kerry. The officers found 94,000 cigarettes valued at €41,000 in the vehicle. The driver, a local man, was questioned at the scene and his car was confiscated.
Follow-up searches were carried out in Killarney and at a private house 52,000 cigarettes and some roll-your-own tobacco was found with a quantity of cash.
Those targeted are believed to belong to a network of criminals selling contraband and counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco in the Cork, Kerry and Limerick areas.
In an unrelated operation on Monday night, Customs officers arrested six people following two separate searches.
A group of men, three from Britain and one from Spain, were arrested when they disembarked from a Malaga flight to Cork. A total of 3.5kg of cannabis valued at more than €20,000 was found.
The men were arrested and brought to Togher Garda station, and appeared before Cork District Court yesterday on charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act. They were remanded in custody to appear in court next Monday.
Meanwhile, two Irish women in their 30s were arrested at the airport after a sniffer dog detected cannabis they had swallowed, even though it was small in quantity and wrapped in plastic.
When a van disembarking from Ringaskiddy ferry was searched by Customs and gardaí on Saturday night it was found to contain 20,000 cigarettes, 538 litres of beer and 92 litres of vodka. The haul and the van were confiscated.
Four Eastern European men with UK addresses who were in the van were taken into custody.
The cigarettes were Russian and Lithuanian, while the vodka was of Polish origin. The haul had a retail value of €15,000.
All the operations in recent days are part of the major drive by Revenue to crack down on smuggling in both the main ports and airport in Dublin, but also other ports of entry around the State.