30 M CIGGIES SEIZED; EUR11m smuggle ring smashed.Byline: BY MATT BLAKE THIS is the illegal cigarette haul which could have cost the taxpayer millions of euro in lost tax. The 30 million smokes went on display yesterday after a series of raids. A crack team of gardai, PSNI PSNI Police Service of Northern Ireland (UK) PSNI Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland PSNI Professional Systems Network, Inc. and Customs officials swooped on three locations to bag the EUR EUR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Euro. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 11million cache. The operation - codename "PALMAL" - was the biggest bust on Irish contraband cig traffickers in six years. It's so vast it would take a 20-a-day smoker 4,109 years to make his way through the massive haul. Investigators believe the smugglers stashed the cigarettes - including Palace and Silk Cut Silk Cut is brand of low tar cigarette produced by the Gallaher Group. The packaging is characterised by a distinctive stark white packet with the brand name in a purple square. Tobacco only makes up 75% of the filling; the rest is Cytrel. brands - in four 40-foot containers in Singapore and loaded them onto a ship on April 22. The containers were then shipped 7,000 miles to Dublin port Dublin Port (Irish: Calafort Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the biggest sea port of Ireland, both the country and the island. It has both historical and contemporary economic importance. Approximatively two thirds of the Republic of Ireland's port traffic goes via Dublin Port. , via France, arriving a month later. Then they were split up and moved around the North and South of Ireland before being taken to three hideouts in Louth and Meath before they were seized on Thursday night. A number of suspects were later found holed up in four more locations around the country and taken in for questioning. Director of Customs Investigations Dave Godwin said: "This operation exemplifies the international agencies' co-operation that exists in the fight against smuggling. "The organisation necessary to move this quantity of contraband demonstrates the length to which criminal gangs will go to avoid paying excise duty. "In the average pack of cigarettes that costs EUR7.45, the duty collected is EUR5.84. Criminal gangs can make a fortune from this kind of activity." A Customs spokesman said investigations into the smuggling ring are continuing both nationally and internationally. Biggest illegal cig bust in 6yrs 4,109 years to smoke at 20 a day CAPTION(S): MASSIVE HAUL Customs worker yesterday |
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