Customs officers seized 31,600 cigarettes a man had been attempting to smuggle into the country through Dublin Airport in his checked baggage on Thursday.
Revenue officials stopped an Irish man after he got off a flight from London Heathrow. A Revenue spokesman said the smuggled cigarettes were discovered during a search as a result of “routine profiling”.
The cigarette packets included the brands Benson & Hedges and Rothmans, and Revenue estimated they had a retail value on the black market of €22,000.
This would represent a potential loss to the Exchequer of €19,500, the spokesman said.
Earlier in the week Revenue officers seized a large amount of cash that officials suspected was the proceeds of crime, or intended for use in criminal activity. Some €22,400 was seized in Dublin Airport on Monday, following a search of two passengers who had arrived on a flight from Gdansk, Poland.
A man and a woman, who are both in their 60s and originally from Poland, were questioned over the seizure. The cash was primarily made up of €200 and €100 bills.
“These seizures are part of Revenue’s ongoing operations targeting organised crime and the supply of illegal tobacco products,” a Revenue spokesman said.
On Tuesday, Dublin District Court judge Brian Smyth granted Revenue a three-month cash detention order on the seized funds.
