A major seizure of smuggled cigarettes has been made at Drogheda port in a targeted operation by the Revenue's customs service.
Some 2.3 million cigarettes, valued at €700,000, were found concealed in the rear of a container that was searched after it arrived at the port on board a vessel. The ship had sailed from Rotterdam, and the contraband was among a mixed cargo.
The container was searched in the port by the customs service based in Dundalk.
The size of the seizure means that the cigarettes would have represented a loss to the Exchequer of around €550,000 in unpaid excise duties.
It is one of the largest seizures of smuggled cigarettes so far this year. Others have been made at Rosslare port and Wicklow port in the last month.
A custom's source said that smugglers would try to make use of any point of access into the country.
He believed that the cigarettes detected in Drogheda, which were of the Sovereign brand, were in fact counterfeit, and that a criminal gang had organised the shipment.
He said the cigarettes were most likely produced in the Far East, then had the Sovereign brand put on the packaging, and hidden behind genuine goods for export.
They would most likely have been transported from Drogheda across the Border and into the UK for sale on the black market.