When Maggie approaches the man wheeling the big blue suitcase through Dublin Airports’ T2 arrival hall, she circles him for a few seconds before sitting and staring deeply into his eyes in a manner which - if you didn’t know better - might be considered adoring.
It is less adoring than it is accusatory however and the shifty looking man - a walking Revenue prop – has just been busted carrying thousands of cigarettes bought elsewhere in the EU in contravention of Irish customs rules.
The set-up take-down was organised by Revenue to promote the launch of a campaign aimed at reminding people what the rules around tobacco are and what the consequences of breaking them might be.
Michael Gilligan is the head of Revenue’s Dublin Airport Frontier Management Branch. He stressed that nothing was changing in terms of allowances but he warned that from next week his team of officers will be getting tougher on those who break them.
RM Block
People can bring in 800 cigarettes, 400 cigarillos, 200 cigars and up to 1kg of tobacco from other EU countries where duty has been paid, as long as the products are for personal use.
From December 9th anyone found with more than that will have all their cigarettes, cigars or rolling tobacco seized and may face prosecution.
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The sale of illicit tobacco is big business in Ireland and Revenue seized more than 112 million illegal cigarettes and 39,500kg of tobacco in 2024 with more than 25 per cent of the cigarettes smoked here falling foul of the law.
The illegal trade costs the Exchequer about €600 million in lost revenue annually. While individuals carrying in more than they are allowed from other EU countries amounts to a small percentage of that loss – with illegal tobacco factories and large-scale smuggling considerably more problematic - it forms part of a puzzle the authorities want to solve.
Mr Gilligan stressed the allowances were not changing but said “what is changing”[are] the consequences of exceeding these amounts.
He pointed to the dog detector team, describing them as “a key part of our national response to the illicit traffic of tobacco products. We have 25 detector dog teams deployed across the country. These dogs and their handlers are trying to identify concealed tobacco, drugs, cash, in passengers’ baggage and freight.”
He said in Dublin Airport alone, his teams were making more than 10 seizures of illegal tobacco every day with one criminal enterprise recently detected trying to smuggle over 300,000 past customs officials.
“If you arrive in here, as some people do, with 10,000 or more cigarettes we certainly would be looking at prosecution. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. We’re really highlighting the personal use. If you keep within those limits, you will have no problem. If you’re in excess of those limits, it will be seized,” he said.
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