CUSTOMS OFFICERS believe they have foiled a sophisticated illegal cigarette processing operation following the seizure of tobacco, cigarette paper, filters and packaging for 12 million cigarettes.
The €5 million shipment arrived at Dublin Port on Monday from Holyhead. A follow-up surveillance operation by Customs officers was in place near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, on Tuesday. Security sources said the haul contained all of the elements needed to manufacture 12 million cigarettes.
“It would have been processed into finished packets of smokes at an illegal processing plant. That’s how sophisticated it’s gone now,” said one well-placed source.
While illegal cigarette processing plants have been found in Europe, until now no evidence had been found indicating their presence here.
One man was questioned in connection with Tuesday’s find. His lorry was trailed from the time it collected the 40ft container at Dublin Port.
When it pulled into a yard near the townland of Creevy on Tuesday, Customs moved in.
Suspicions were first raised when members of the Customs container-profiling team spotted irregularities on the container’s manifest at Dublin Port.
They requested that the container, which was registered as paper products, be checked by an X-ray scanner. The scan showed irregularities, prompting a search of the container.
Four tonnes of semi-refined tobacco was found. Paper and tips or filters for 12 million cigarettes were also found. The search also yielded a large quantity of cardboard packaging with the logo of Superking, a popular cigarette brand here and in Britain.
The cardboard was perforated, meaning it was ready-made for machinery that could fold it into small boxes into which 20 cigarettes would be packed by the same machinery.
Also found were cardboard sleeves printed with the Superking logo. Such sleeves are used to package 10 cartons of 20 cigarettes into 200 quantities usually sold in duty-free shops at airports.
The haul has been traced to a Danish port but investigations in Ireland and abroad are continuing.
Sources said they believe the processing plant the haul was destined for was close to where it was intercepted.
It is unclear if the haul is linked to dissident republicans or an organised crime gang.
The seizure follows the interception of cigarettes worth €50 million in Co Louth two weeks ago.