DEALERS SELLING cigarettes illegally who are costing the State hundreds of millions of euro per year are now peddling their contraband door to door in housing estates.
According to a lobby group set up to resist the black market in cigarettes, leaflets are being pushed through letter boxes advertising cigarettes at less than half price.
Retailers Against Smuggling (Ras) estimates the State is losing out on up to €500 million in taxes per year because of the importation and sale of illicit cigarettes, more than double the Revenue estimate of €200 million.
“Large-scale criminal gangs are involved in it. But it’s coming down to people delivering leaflets through doors, offering cigarettes at half price or less,” Ras campaign manager Paddy Donohoe said.
In some areas the sellers are delivering flyers in housing estates with “price lists” for the illegally-branded contraband and a mobile phone number to make a purchase. Prices vary from €40 for 200 Benson and Hedges or John Player Blue to €28 for 200 Gold Classic.
Similar products bought legally in a shop would cost between €95 and €99 for 200 cigarettes.
The lobby group says the cigarettes are being hand-rolled in China, specifically for the Irish market, with packaging forged to include the Irish government health warning.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan told the Dáil a fortnight ago that the Revenue had established a “high-level internal group” to examine the risks related to tobacco excise.
Initiatives set up by the group include: profiling of passengers and freight to identify smugglers; establishment of a “tobacco hotline”; national “blitz-style” operations; and the purchase of scanning and detection technologies.