Cigarette seizure in Dublin Port
Officers from Revenue's Customs service today (21/02/2008) seized 1.5 million Benson & Hedges brand cigarettes in Dublin Port. The cigarettes are valued at €555,000 with a potential revenue loss of €450,000. The cigarettes were concealed in seven leaded crates of glass which arrived in a container from Valencia, Spain. The crates had been carefully constructed with a lead-liner inner crate to conceal the cigarettes.
A Revenue spokesman said, "Considerable work went into this concealment, the glass was used to disperse x-rays from the container scanner and lead was used to avoid detection by x-ray. However the container scanner we use is powerful enough to provide an image that raised our suspicions and when the container was stripped the cigarettes were discovered."
The cigarettes will be shredded and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.
Photographs available
[Ends 21/02/2008]