Revenue seizes €86,000 of cigarettes and tobacco in Dundalk and Cork

Revenue have seized more than 111,000 cigarettes and 67.5kgs of unstamped roll-your-own tobacco in Dundalk and Cork.

The retail value of yesterday’s seizure, which was part of a national intelligence led operation, is estimated to be around €86,400.

Officers searched a premises on the North side of Cork city and in Dundalk and seized the unstamped ‘Excellence’ and ‘777’ brand cigarettes along with some unstamped ‘Flandria’ tobacco.

Two saloon cars were also seized, and two Irish men, one in his 50s and one in his 60s, were questioned.

A file is being prepared for the DPP.

Contraband cigarettes detected in Louth with two million seized either side of border

A customs officer with some of the seized cigarettes

Irish and Northern Irish Customs officers have, in a joint operation, seized more than two million contraband cigarettes.

Searches involving tobacco detection dogs in Louth and Dublin yielded over 300,000 cigarettes.

While searches in Down, Tyrone and Armagh resulted in the seizure of a tobacco processing plant, and two million cigarettes, along with 12 tonnes of tobacco and £50,000.

Five people have been arrested in the North.

The seizures are part of a joint customs operation targetting an organised crime gang’s cross border smuggling operation.

Customs officials say the investigation is continuing in both jurisdictions, and internationally.

The cigarettes seized represent a potential loss to the Exchequer of approximately €100,200. This is assuming that they would have displaced the equivalent full tax paid quantity of cigarettes.

Thousands of euro worth of cigarettes and tobacco seized in Louth in the last week

During the last week, Revenue customs officers, assisted by members of An Garda Siochana seized 51,500 ‘MG’ brand cigarettes and 9.5 kgs of ‘Amber Leaf’ tobacco at a roadside stop in Co Louth.

A further 5000 ‘MG’ cigarettes and 1 kg of counterfeit ‘Amber Leaf’ and ‘Golden Virginia’ tobacco were seized in an operation at Drogheda market, and 7,650 ‘MG’ cigarettes were discovered during a search of a retail outlet and a linked private residence in Dundalk.

The retail value of these seizures is €33,600. Three Irish nationals have been questioned and investigations are on-going.

The announcement was made yesterday after the Customs Service revealed they had seized a total of 410 x 50gram pouches of ‘Flandria’ tobacco in Co Cavan.

The 330 pouches, sent through the post in eleven cartons, to private addresses, were identified by Revenue customs staff at Dublin mail centre. During the operation two private houses were searched and officers seized a further 80 pouches. The tobacco is valued at a total of €8,200.

These seizures are part of Revenue’s on-going operations targeting the supply and sale of illegal cigarettes in the shadow economy. If businesses or members of the public have any information regarding the smuggling or sale of illegal cigarettes or tobacco, they can contact Revenue in confidence on free phone number 1800 295 295.

Counterfeit vodka factory uncovered in Kilcurry

Some of the items uncovered in the raid at Kilcurry

A counterfeit vodka factory was raided in Kilcurry last night.

The latest find by officers from the Revenue’s Customs Service and An Garda Síochana comes after a house containing a quantity of undistilled alcohol and €1.3m worth of tobacco was discovered in Proleek in Ravensdale earlier this week.  It is not known as yet though if the two raids are in any way linked.

Investigators uncovered a major haul of counterfeit vodka labeling, packaging materials and bottle closures in a shed in the townland, just outside Dundalk.

Amongst the items discovered in the raid were 110,000 bottle closures, 400,000 counterfeit vodka labels and 500 counterfeit cardboard outer cases.

While no counterfeit vodka was discovered, a bottle filling machine and ancillary equipment was also seized on the site.

Two people were detained for questioning following the raid with investigations continuing today.

Investigations continue into tobacco find at Ravensdale

Some of the items recovered in the raid of a private house at Proleek in Ravensdale yesterday

Investigations are continuing this morning following the discovery of an illegal tobacco factory outside Dundalk yesterday.

The factory at Proleek in Ravensdale is believed to be the first of its kind in the state.

Three tonnes of tobacco worth an estimated €1.2 million were seized at a private home around 7.45am yesterday morning after a joint intelligence operation between Revenue’s custom services and the Gardaí.

It is estimated that the contraband could have cost the exchequer about €1 million in lost taxes.

Revenue officials have said the house was operating as a “large scale cottage-type industry for preparing and packaging illegal roll-your-own tobacco”.

A total of 8,720 L&M and Excellence brand cigarettes were seized, as well as counterfeit Amber Leaf and Flandia brand pouches of tobacco, and Dutch tax stamps.

Two non-Irish nationals were questioned but no arrests have been made.

€850,000 worth of tobacco seized in Ravensdale

Tobacco with a street value of €850,000 has been recovered following the search of a premises at Proleek in Ravensdale earlier today.

Dundalk Gardaí, along with members of the Garda Regional Support Unit and Revenue Custom Officials, recovered the large quantity of tobacco, as well as other equipment such as empty pouches, equipment for sealing pouches, boxes of cigarettes, alcohol labels and 60 litres of what is reported by LMFM news  to be undistilled alcohol during the raid at 7.45am this morning.

No arrests were made but the scene has been sealed off for technical examination with tests set to be carried out on the seized items to determine who was responsible for the items being there in the first place.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Dundalk Gardaí.

County Museum highlights growing collection donated by the people

The contribution that the people of Dundalk and County Louth have made to the County Museum’s impressive collection is the focus of its 20th anniversary exhibition: “Celebrating 20 years – A Story Unfolds”, which was officially opened yesterday by Mr Conor Newman, Chairperson of the Heritage Council of Ireland.

The County Museum, Dundalk, a former distillery and later a tobacco warehouse, was officially opened on March 28, 1994 by then Uachtarain na hEireann, Mary Robinson.

In the years since the opening of the museum, the people of the region have loyally supported the facility, adding to its collection by donating family records, images and artefacts of times gone by so that this history and knowledge is available to current and future generations.

County Curator, Brian Walsh, explained that the most appropriate way to celebrate the museum’s twentieth anniversary is by including the people who have made it such a success by donating items to the Museum.

“The County Museum here in Dundalk has been a real success right from the beginning, thanks to the support of many local people. We have mounted many major exhibitions over the years. We were the only museum in the country to hold an Olympics Exhibition in 2012 and we were the first museum in Europe to introduce virtual technology. Later this year we will become the first museum in the country to get our 1916 exhibition up and running.

“Without a shadow of a doubt a huge part of our success has been the support we received from the people of Louth. They have worked with us wherever possible in building a remarkable archive of local history here.

“We came to the conclusion that the best was to mark the anniversary is with an exhibition which will highlight a fascinating selection of the vast number of items placed in the care of the museum over the past two decades by local people who recognise that this history should be shared with as many people as possible.

“It is the museum’s way of recognising the contributions made, saying thanks and emphasising that it is for all of the people,” added the curator.

Mr Walsh went on to thank Conor Newman for officially opening the anniversary exhibition in his capacity as Chairman of the Heritage Council. It was an opportunity for him to see for himself just what the museum has to offer.

“We did have the then president at our opening in 1994, though we have to recognise that our current Head of State, President Higgins, is making history himself this week in London. We would like to have him pay us a visit during our anniversary year and I hope he will be able to accept our invitation,” added Mr Walsh.

‘Celebrating 20 years – A Story Unfolds’ will remain open to the public at the County Museum Dundalk from April to September during normal opening hours.

For further information contact the County Museum at 042 9327056.

One in three cigarettes smoked in Dundalk is contraband

One in three cigarettes smoked in Dundalk is contraband, according to new figures released by Japan Tobacco International (JTI).

JTI are one of four big players in the Irish cigarette market, along with Imperial Tobacco, British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International.

Together they are set to fund a new “Codentify” system which will track cigarette packets from their production base to the end user in an effort to cut down on the amount of illegal tobacco smuggled into Ireland – something which costs the State an estimated €240m in lost revenue a year.

It will allow Customs officers armed with smart phone apps to immediately tell the difference between products destined to be legally sold on the Irish market and contraband.

Alec Ellis, a spokesman for JTI, said the system is already in use in Switzerland and the tobacco-producing companies supplying Ireland were anxious to introduce it here.

Mr Ellis identified Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin, Tralee and Cork as areas where more than 30% of cigarettes were illegal – all well above the national average of around 13%.

Three in 10 Dundalk smokers smoke illegal cigarettes

More than three in every 10 smokers in Dundalk are smoking dodgy or illegal cigarettes, according to a new survey by MS Intelligence.

The new research reveals that 30.1% of smokers in Dundalk opt not to buy legal packets of cigarettes – the seventh worse record in Ireland and above the national average of 27.9%.

Drogheda and Tallaght were the worst offenders at 32.8%.

The data, by market survey firm MS Intelligence, was gathered by analysing 5,000 used cigarette boxes and confirming no tax had been paid on them.

A spokesman for the researchers said: “The research, which was carried out by collecting empty packs from 22 of Ireland’s largest towns and cities, shows that the level of ‘Non Irish Duty Paid’ is still at over one in four.

“However, excise increases on cigarettes and roll your own tobacco in Budget 2012 saw a surge in the attractiveness of the illegal tobacco market.”

Cigarettes seized in Faughart

1.2 million cigarettes worth in the region of €550,000, over 400kg of tobacco worth €180,000 and a small quantity of counterfeit vodka were seized at a house in Faughart, just outside Dundalk, last Saturday.

The total value of the seizure amounts to €730,000 and is a potential loss of €620,000 to the Exchequer.

No arrests were made during the raid and enquiries are ongoing.