TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL with an estimated value of over €300,000 has been seized at Rosslare Europort.

Close to 26,000 litres of beer, more than 11,800 litres of wine, and around 77.5 kilograms of ‘roll your own’ tobacco was sized following three separate, routine operations.

The first seizure was on last Tuesday, when Revenue officers seized almost 11,300 litres of wine with an estimated retail value of over €137,000, following the search of an unaccompanied trailer that had arrived on a ferry from Zeebrugge, Belgium. 

On Saturday, Revenue officers then seized around 77.5kgs of ‘roll your own tobacco’ and over 500 litres of wine, with a combined estimated retail value of €61,000.

This followed a search of an Irish registered truck and its accompanying trailer that had disembarked a ferry from Le Havre, France and the smuggled tobacco and alcohol were discovered with the assistance of Revenue’s mobile x-ray scanner.

Also on Saturday, Revenue officers seized close to 26,000 litres of beer following the search of a Polish registered truck that disembarked a ferry from Dunkirk, France.

The smuggled alcohol had an estimated retail value of over €103,000.

Revenue officers say the smuggled goods represented a potential loss to the Exchequer of €167,000.

Investigations are ongoing following these seizures, which are part of Revenue’s ongoing operations targeting the shadow economy and smuggling.