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.
Talk of the Town 