Irish seize 12 million cigarettes, arrest smuggler

Irish seize 12 million cigarettes in 2 operations against gangs smuggling from Spain, Vietnam

DUBLIN (AP) -- Irish police and customs officials said Tuesday they have uncovered two cigarette-smuggling plots and seized more than 12 million cigarettes shipped from Spain and Vietnam.

The legal street value of the cigarettes was euro4.8 million ($7 million), including euro3.7 million in potential tax revenue to Ireland, said customs spokeswoman Sarah Cox.

The country imposes the highest tobacco taxes in the European Union, making it a smugglers' paradise for thousands involved in shipping and selling illegal imports and counterfeit cigarettes.

Police said they arrested a truck driver Monday night as he drove 6 million cigarettes toward the Northern Ireland border.

Cox said those cigarettes had been detected during searches last week and were hidden in a container shipped from Barcelona, Spain, and labeled "hair extensions."

The second interception of smuggled cigarettes, detected Saturday but announced Tuesday, involved a container shipped from Vietnam also containing about 6 million cigarettes. Cox said those "were concealed behind a cover load of wooden furniture."

Smugglers long have targeted Ireland as the most profitable market in Europe for importing cigarettes. Sources include EU countries that tax cigarettes more lightly and Asian countries, particularly China, that manufacture counterfeit products bearing Western brand names.

Customs officials in Ireland and neighboring Britain -- another heavy taxer of tobacco goods -- say the smugglers can buy cigarettes for less than euro1 ($1.50) per 20-cigarette pack and ship them into both countries through ports in both the Republic of Ireland and neighboring Northern Ireland.

The typical black-market price for smuggled packs in street markets, pubs and other word-of-mouth supply points is around euro5. A legally taxed price costs more than euro8. The discount is similar in black-market Britain.

As a result, Irish and British customs officials estimate that one in three cigarettes smoked in both countries has been smuggled in. Ireland estimates it's losing euro500 million a year in unpaid taxes.

In Spain, a particularly popular target for small-scale smugglers doubling as tourists, a carton of cigarettes retails for euro12 to euro15, compared to around euro90 in Ireland.

Experts say cigarette-shipping gangs prefer Ireland over Britain, in part, because of Ireland's weaker port security and its more lenient sentencing standards for smugglers. It also reflects the heavy involvement of current and former members of the outlawed Irish Republican Army in the illicit trade.

Last month Irish police seized a European-record haul of 120 million cigarettes hidden in a cargo of animal feed on a ship from the Philippines.