MORE than three million suspected illicit cigarettes have been seized by authorities here.
Officers from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) attended a property in Enniskillen on Thursday, 3 December, along with police. HMRC arrested five men and seized a container of cigarettes that was being unloaded.
The suspected illicit tobacco, which was transported in a container declared as tinned peas from Holland to Dublin Port before being transferred by lorry to Enniskillen, is worth an estimated £1.3m in lost duty and taxes.
Approximately €3,500 in cash was also seized in the operation which involved the Irish Revenue Commissioners and Dutch authorities.
The five men arrested by HMRC, aged between 28 and 67, were released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service.
Steve Tracey, assistant director, fraud investigation service HMRC, said, “HMRC and our partner agencies are continuing to work together and are prepared to deploy where necessary to disrupt and dismantle the illicit trade of tobacco and other forms of criminality.
“Multi-agency investigations mounted by the Joint Agency Task Force show what can be achieved by our ongoing co-operation across jurisdictions to tackle criminality and demonstrates that we are committed to working with each other, at every level and in every location to tackle organised crime on a cross border basis.”
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