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 31st.
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)
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