Local businessman believed to be behind country’s illegal cigarette trade

The Modega cigarettes seized at Castlebellingham last year

A local businessman – nicknamed ‘the Jackal’ – has been identified by the Sunday World newspaper as the new ‘Mr Big’ of Ireland’s booming cigarette smuggling trade.

According to the paper, the 44-year-old is believed to have netted up to €20 million flooding the country with fake fags.

He had remained under the radar for years until an incredible brush with international terror group Al Qaeda unwittingly turned him into public enemy number one in Ireland’s war on cigarette smugglers.

When a terrorist cell attacked a ship in the Suez Canal, authorities discovered among its other cargo, a shipment of nine million illicit cigarettes bound for Ireland.

The Criminal Assets Bureau linked the haul to ‘The Jackal’ and launched a probe into his financial affairs.

The suspected smuggling kingpin has no convictions for terrorist related activity but sources say he is closely linked to the Real IRA and pays a sizeable portion of his enormous profits to the terror group.

The man is reported to have been shipping in contraband on an industrial level for years. He buys containers of cheap fags in the Far East for €20,000 and makes more than €1.6 million profit on each.

The businessman, who lives outside Dundalk with what the paper described as his ‘glamorous wife’, has been buying up properties and recently purchased more than 100 acres of land near Dublin.

According to The Sunday World, the couple are regularly spotted enjoying nights out and friends believe they have simply bucked the economic trend, having emerged unscathed despite owning retail businesses that have been hard hit by the recession.

However, ‘The Jackal’, is supposedly soon to be issued with a massive seven-figure demand from the Criminal Assets Bureau, who are trawling through his banking transactions and ‘company’ accounts.

It is understood they have linked him to major shipments of contraband cigarettes from as far back as 2008 and believe he may have been smuggling for up to ten years.

The Sunday World’s sources say he has held directorships on a number of legitimate companies which he uses as a front for his operation. But he has also hijacked VAT and registration details of perfectly innocent companies and used them to get his contraband through Irish ports.

It is understood that as part of their investigations, the CAB has contacted a number of retail stores around the country who had no idea that their details were being used to clear imported goods from Vietnam and other Asian countries.

Last year, the businessman lost a major consignment when Al Qaeda terrorists fired two rockets at the Asia Cosco cargo ship as it made its way along Egypt’s Suez Canal.

They were hoping to disrupt trade in the area and even released a video of the attack on the mother ship.

But instead, they blew apart ‘The Jackal’s’ lucrative business when investigators discovered the consignment of illicit cigarettes on the damaged ship and fitted it with a tracking device.

The cigarettes were transferred to a smaller vessel in Rotterdam, which docked in Dublin port. The Emergency Response Unit, the Organised Crime Unit, CAB and Customs watched as the container was loaded onto a truck and drove north towards Co Louth followed by a jeep.

The van was stopped at Castlebellingham and four men – three men in the jeep, along with the driver of the van – were arrested.

Although ‘The Jackal’ was not at the scene, a major probe into the consignment linked it back to him and he became a target of CAB.

He has been found to have links with, among others, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy.

Read the full story here.

Major Provo feud reported along Louth-Armagh border

The Asia Cosco ship was attacked in the Suez Canal

The seizure of €4.3m worth of illegal cigarettes after an Al-Qaeda rocket blew the lid off an IRA smuggling racket has sparked a deadly new feud between rival Provo factions, according to a report in today’s Sunday Independent.

The cigarettes – bound for a fake company, which does not exist, in Co Louth – were uncovered after a container of cigarettes was struck by Islamic militants who targeted a huge cargo ship on the Suez Canal.

Sources have revealed that a south Armagh gang involved in the feud was involved in a consortium that put up money for the shipment, which was believed to be one of many organised by another IRA faction based in Co Louth.

The container was intercepted only by chance after several Al-Qaeda members in Egypt fired two rockets at one of the world’s biggest ships, the Asia Cosco, back in July.

Inspectors who examined the container, which was marked as carrying furniture on the ship’s manifest, discovered it was full of cigarettes on their way to a fake company listed in Co Louth.

Gardai and customs officials were notified and the illegal cargo was seized outside Dundalk at the Applegreen Service Station in September.

Three suspects were arrested and later freed. A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Sunday Independent reports today though that the gang behind the cigarette-smuggling is also involved in diesel-laundering in south Armagh, and had problems with a rival border Provo faction involved in the same illegal business.

Garda sources say tensions are growing in the Louth-Armagh border region as smuggling gangs are becoming increasingly rich and the power of the former South Armagh Provisional IRA is on the wane.

Gardai say several gangs are now openly defying the IRA and refusing to pay any “protection” to local Provo bosses.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, another bitter dispute has erupted between the family of one of the leading IRA families in the Border area and other smugglers which has resulted in extensive damage to property.

The Sunday Independent has learned that a leading Sinn Féin figure, who is also a former leading IRA man, from outside the area was called in to mediate in the dispute two weeks ago. It is understood he ordered both sides to end the dispute.

The gangs who are openly defying the IRA include the one which murdered Det Garda Adrian Donohoe. This gang, with the exception of the suspected gunman who fled to the United States, continue to live openly in the south Armagh area. Sources said the gang continued to be involved in stealing  cars for export.

Source: Al-Qaeda rocket sparks fresh IRA smuggling feud (Sunday Independent)

Local smuggler now the primary target for Criminal Assets Bureau

A local smuggler whose container of cigarettes was hit by a rocket fired by Al Qaeda on the Suez Canal has emerged as the number one target for the Criminal Asset Bureau.

That’s according to a report in yesterday’s Sunday Independent which claims that the man in his mid-40s has become one of the country’s richest smugglers having built up supplies for the illicit cigarette market on both sides of the border.

According to the report, the man has close ties to the south Armagh IRA and owns a string of commercial properties despite having paid no tax In years. According to the Sunday Independent he bought 100 acres of potential development land earlier this year for over €1m.

He came to the attention of gardaí in September after they were alerted by Interpol about the container that had been hit when al Qaeda members fired two rockets at the giant cargo ship, Asia Cosco, as it sailed up the Suez Canal on August 31^st.

One of the rockets struck the local man’s container which, on the ship’s manifest, was recorded as containing furniture but was found to contain cigarettes packed in wooden cases.

A satellite tracker was placed in the container and it was followed from Dublin Port and seized at the Applegreen service station outside Dundalk. The cigarettes had an estimated street value of €4.3m with a potential loss to the Revenue of €3.7m.

Among the individuals associates are said to be men close to the IRA leadership in south Armagh and north Louth.

Source: Smuggler with links to IRA now ‘number one’ CAB target (Sunday Independent)

 

Related articles

• Local businessman operating major illegal cigarette operation is exposed by al Qaeda rocket (talkofthetown.ie)