Cigarettes worth €14.7m seized

Officers from Revenue's Customs Service have today seized 38 million cigarettes at Dublin Port.

Officers from Revenue's Customs Service have today seized 38 million cigarettes at Dublin Port.

The cigarettes were in four forty-foot maritime containers.

The cigarettes seized have a retail value of €14.7million with a potential loss to the Exchequer of €13.1million.

The "Golden Eagle" brand cigarettes, which originated in Vietnam and arrived into Dublin via Rotterdam, were described as 'wood briquettes' on the manifest and were consigned to an Irish-based company.

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Approximately 9.5m cigarettes were seized from each of the four containers.

"This seizure, which was the result of profiling by Revenue's Customs Service, is a significant blow to the criminals involved in this illicit trade," said Revenue Commissioner Liam Irwin.

"Tobacco smuggling is organised fraud on a global scale - it brings criminality into our communities and robs millions of euro from the State each year."

Several individuals were interviewed and a premises was searched under warrant following the seizure.

Investigations are ongoing.