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Dublin: 8 °C Thursday 23 May, 2013

Over 26,000 cigarettes seized at Dublin airport

Customs believe that the three people who were said to be carrying the cigarettes are part of an Eastern European cigarette smuggling gang.

The seizure made today at Dublin airport
The seizure made today at Dublin airport
Image: Revenue Customs Service

OVER 26,000 CIGARETTES were seized at Dublin Airport after two women and a man, believed to be part of an Eastern European cigarette smuggling gang, were stopped and searched.

The three included one Romanian woman, a Lithuanian woman and a Lithuanian man, who are all in their 20s.

They were stopped and searched by officers from the Revenue’s Customs Service after they had arrived on a flight from Zurich in Switzerland.

The 26,540 cigarettes that were seized had an estimated retail value of €11,500 with a potential loss to the Exchequer of around €10,000.  The ‘L&M’ and ‘Marlboro’ branded cigarettes were discovered in three suitcases and are believed to have been bought in Russia.

No arrests were made. Files are being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Customs has asked that if businesses or members of the public have any information regarding the smuggling or sale of illegal cigarettes, they can contact Revenue in confidence on freephone 1800 295 295.

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Comments (8 Comments)

  • €11,500 also assumes they would be selling each pack at about €8.66 – unlikely.

    Reply
  • And of course they were welcomed in with open arms..
    If one of our own stole that amount from the treasury, no doubt they would be arrested on the spot without bail..
    That’s the Ireland we live in today..

    Reply
  • A recent study commissioned bt the Office for Tobacco Control estimated 2009 consumption of duty-paid cigarettes to be 6 Billion, with an additional estimated 1.7 Billion smuggled, untaxed cigarettes consumed.

    Source: http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/healthpromotion/quit/demandforcigarettes2011.pdf

    That means that natioanlly the consumption of smuggled cigarettes is 32,340 per minute.

    So the 26,000 cigarettes seized yesterday represents less than a minute’s consumption.

    Policing of smuggling would appear to be utterly ineffectual, if the seizure of minuscule quantities of contraband tobacco is greeted with such fanfare.

    Of course the sacred cow of the governement recruitment embargo, which at some point seems to have become confused in the minds of policy makers – they now see it as an end in itself rather than a means to an end – means that the people needed in the public sector policing agencies to stem the flow, will not be there to do the work.

    Reply
  • Well yosser what would do with them if you were in charge ,,just would like for you to let us all know???????

    Reply
    • Josser won’t know you responded as you didn’t attach to the link. I’d say he was just reacting to the somewhat racist sentiment in Mary’s post. I’m sure Josser would like all people to be treated the same irrespective of their nationality. That’s an assumption but would definitely be my reading of it.

      Reply

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