Revenue has seized drugs, cigarettes and ‘homemade’ wine worth €420,000 over the course of one week.
Last week, Revenue officers seized 10 kilograms of herbal cannabis, over 158,000 illegal cigarettes, 4.5 kilograms of ‘roll your own’ tobacco, over 26,100 litres of beer and 54 litres of ‘homemade’ wine.
Some of these seizures were made as the result of intelligence-led operations, while others were made as a result of routine profiling.
The 10 kilograms of herbal cannabis were seized on Friday at Dublin Port, with the drugs carrying an estimated street value of €200,000.
They were discovered, with the assistance of Revenue’s mobile x-ray scanner and detector dog Robbie, concealed in a consignment originating from Spain that was labelled as ‘stationery products’.
Cigarettes and beer
Some 45,000 ‘Davidoff’ branded cigarettes were also seized on Friday at Dublin Airport.
The cigarettes, with an estimated retail value of approximately €33,000, were discovered in air cargo consignments originating from Spain.
The 26,100 litres of various brands of beer were meanwhile seized on Thursday at Dublin Port, following the search of a trailer that had arrived from France. The smuggled alcohol had an estimated retail value of more than €104,000.
A further 12,960 unstamped cigarettes were also seized on Tuesday when a property was searched, under warrant, in the Ballaghaderreen area of Roscommon.
The illegal cigarettes branded ‘Gauloises Blondes’, ‘J & J Lights American Blend’, ‘United’ and ‘MM Classic Slims’, have an estimated retail value of €9,700, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of over €7,600.
One man and two women were questioned in relation to this particular seizure.
Finally, last Friday Revenue officers seized 100,400 cigarettes, 4.5 kilograms of ‘roll your own’ tobacco and 54 litres of ‘homemade’ wine following an operation in the Ballycoolin area of Dublin 15.
The seized products, with a combined estimated retail value of almost €75,000, represent a potential loss to the Exchequer of approximately €59,000.
Revenue said two Romanian men in their 30s and 40s were questioned in relation to the seizure and investigations are ongoing following all of the operations.
