OVER €5 MILLION worth of contraband tobacco products have been seized by Revenue in the last week.

Officers performed a series of intelligence-led operations on houses and warehouses at different locations around the country. They also discovered almost three million cigarettes at Dublin Port.

In total, over 9.5 million cigarettes were seized, which Revenue says represents a total loss to the Exchequer of nearly €4 million (this is assuming that the quantity of cigarettes seized would have displaced the same quantity of full tax paid cigarettes and tobacco).

Four operations have been carried out across the country since last Thursday with different amounts of cigarettes seized in each case. The quantities taken during each seizure were as follows:

• 7,800 cigarettes branded MG, Marlboro Gold and Royal Classic, and 3.5kg of Flandria tobacco were seized this morning from three houses in Dublin’s inner city.
• 39,000 MG brand cigarettes were seized from a house in Cashel, Co Tipperary yesterday afternoon. A man in his 40s was questioned and a file is currently being prepared for the DPP.
• 6.6 million cigarettes, branded Royale Pacific, were seized from a warehouse in Co Meath yesterday evening. A container containing the cigarettes had originated in Vietnam and had arrived into Dublin on Monday from Rotterdam.
• 2.9 million Jim branded cigarettes were seized last Thursday from Dublin Port.

The illegal tobacco products seized by Revenue Revenue Revenue

Revenue said that the seizures were part of its ongoing efforts to target the illegal importation, supply, and selling of tobacco products.

Read: This country has taken cigarettes from shops to make people quit the habit

Read: Revenue seized 68 MILLION cigarettes in 2015 – some from very unusual places

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