Revenue seize herbal cannabis, cigarettes, tobacco, beer and ‘homemade’ wine: total value of seizures over €420,000

Over the course of the last week, Revenue seized 10 kgs of herbal cannabis, over 158,000 illegal cigarettes, 4.5 kgs of ‘roll your own’ tobacco, over 26,100 litres of beer and 54 litres of ‘home-made’ wine.

According to Revenue, some of these seizures were made as a result of intelligence led operations while others were made as a result of routine profiling.

The details are summarised below.

Last Friday (19th), at Dublin Port, Revenue officers seized 10 kgs of herbal cannabis with an estimated street value of €200,000.

The illegal drugs were discovered, with the assistance of Revenue’s mobile x-ray scanner and detector dog Robbie (pictured above), concealed in a consignment originating from Spain that was manifested as ‘stationery products’.

Also last Friday, at Dublin Airport, Revenue officers seized 45,000 ‘Davidoff’ branded cigarettes that were discovered in air cargo consignments originating from Spain.

The illegal cigarettes have an estimated retail value of approximately €33,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of over €26,500.

Last Thursday at Dublin Port, Revenue officers seized over 26,100 litres of various brands of beer following the search of a trailer that had arrived from France.

The smuggled alcohol had an estimated retail value of more than €104,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer approximately €49,000.

And finally, last Friday week (12th), Revenue officers seized 100,400 cigarettes, 4.5 kgs of ‘roll your own’ tobacco and 54 Litres of ‘home-made’ wine following an operation in the Ballycoolin area of Dublin 15.

The seized products with a combined estimated retail value of almost €75,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of approximately €59,000.

Two Romanian men in their 30s and 40s were questioned.

Investigations are ongoing following these operations.

These seizures are part of Revenue’s ongoing operations targeting the shadow economy and smuggling.

If businesses, or members of the public, have any information regarding smuggling, they can contact Revenue in confidence on Confidential Phone Number 1800 295 295.