Customs officers have disrupted a major criminal gang which was smuggling so many cigarettes from Latvia into Ireland that its members almost completely booked out a commercial flight between the two countries over the weekend.
Most of the smugglers, all Latvians, simply abandoned their luggage, containing cigarettes worth almost €500,000, in the baggage hall at Dublin airport when they realised their flight from the Latvian capital Riga had been selected for a major search operation.
However, up to 20 gang members, most of them carrying cases containing 10,000 cigarettes, were detained and questioned by the authorities. Files are now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Customs officials believe the profit to the gang leaders on each suitcase of cigarettes is in the region of €10,000. Many of the couriers were being paid just €125 a trip, plus expenses, to carry a full case.
A large number have been travelling to Dublin and meeting a Dublin-based Latvian gang member to whom the smuggled cigarettes are handed over. Most of the couriers were not even leaving the airport before travelling home on the return flight.
The scam was so well run that officers of the Customs Service impounded a number of vehicles at Dublin airport at the weekend which they believe were being used to transport the smuggled cigarettes into the city.
A packet of 20 cigarettes sells in Latvia for €1.20 and sells here of €7.20. The hauls seized at the weekend included Marlboro, L & M, and Chesterfields.
Customs manager at Dublin airport Shay Doyle said there would be further such operations. Customs officials decided to stage a major search at the airport over the St Patrick's weekend after customer profiling of three commercial flights from Riga to Dublin indicated large numbers of smugglers would be on board. A study of the inbound and outbound flights revealed many passengers planned to stay in Ireland for just a number of hours before flying back to Riga.
Teams of officials targeted three late-night flights on Friday and Sunday. About 1.4 million cigarettes were seized, valued at €483,000, with a potential loss to the exchequer of €378,000.
A number of other operations during the year have targeted cigarette smuggling routes from Eastern Europe, southern Spain and the Canary Islands.
