Contraband cigarettes with an estimated street value of more than €3 million have been seized during an attempt to smuggle them into the State.
The haul, which included nine million cigarettes of the Raquel brand, were being brought through Dublin Port without the necessary taxes and duties having been paid.
If they had not been detected and were sold in the State, the loss to the exchequer would have been in the region of €2.5 million, according to the Revenue.
The haul was concealed in a 45-foot container which had arrived from Belgium. The manifest for the container was marked "household goods" and it was addressed to a fictitious company in Co Monaghan.
The container was selected for search as a result of routine sea freight profiling by members of the Revenue's custom and excise service. The container was processed through the Revenue's new X-ray scanner at the port, which revealed the cigarettes.
There had been no arrests last night in connection with the find. However, the Revenue said that inquiries were continuing.
The discovery is one of the largest contraband cigarette finds in recent times. Cigarettes with an estimated value of more than €24 million were seized last year, an increase of 33 per cent on 2006.
While most large consignments of smuggled goods are found at ports, customs officers are increasingly discovering items in the luggage of passengers entering the State on flights, mainly from eastern Europe.
