Tobacco racket to cost us €500m
One-quarter of all cigarettes are sold illegally here in 'smugglers' paradise'
Monday January 19 2009
CIGARETTE smuggling is predicted to cost the country more than €500m in lost revenue within a year.
The growth in tobacco smuggling has become so lucrative that it has now been officially declared one of the most profitable forms of organised crime.
Despite a huge increase in seizures by Customs officers, it is estimated that the illegal market accounts for up to a quarter of all cigarettes smoked in Ireland.
Crime gangs have moved rapidly into the racket and are investing their profits in other illegal activities.
Gardai have warned customers who buy smuggled cigarettes that they are funding gangs who could also be involved in drugs, robberies and fraud.
They have identified a number of key outlets where they believe the cigarettes are being sold and are monitoring those premises.
These include several outlets in Dublin city, particularly around the city centre and the area between the two canals, while some legitimate outlets have turned down opportunities to sell cartons at much reduced prices in their shops.
Outside of the capital, gardai have compiled information about two shops in Limerick, a pub car park in Co Wexford, and premises in New Ross, Co Wexford, and Ballaghadereen, Co Roscommon.
Customs officers at Dublin airport have already seized one million smuggled cigarettes since the beginning of the month, while last year more than 38 million cigarettes and 1,672 kilos of tobacco were seized there.
The total haul at all of the ports in the past year has risen significantly from 74.5 million cigarettes in 2007 to last year's haul of more than 134 million, which is valued at €54.3m.
Gangs
But the big rise in seizures has not deterred gangs from trying again because of the ready market on the streets.
According to the European Commission's anti fraud office, cigarette smuggling, in terms of revenue, ranks as the number one method of fraud perpetrated against the budget of the European Communities.
Continued increases in the price of duty paid cigarettes has turned more smokers to illegally traded products and in the UK it is thought that, despite the deployment of 1,000 additional Customs officers to tackle the problem, they have succeeded only in holding the smuggled market at 21pc. In 2007, the Irish Government lost some €352m in taxes because of smuggling while the loss to retailers was estimated at €453m. In 2010, the loss to the exchequer is expected to grow to €528m while retailers are reckoning they will lost turnover in the region of €660m.
Last Friday, Customs officers again highlighted the quality of their intelligence when they stopped and searched 19 people disembarking from a 3am flight from the Canary Islands into Dublin.
Officers seized 254,000 smuggled cigarettes, which they believed were to have been distributed on the black market in the border region by a gang based in Newry.
But, despite the seizures, the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers Advisory Committee adopts a pessimistic outlook and says that because we have the highest price structure for cigarettes in the EU, Ireland is being turned into a "smugglers' paradise".
- Tom Brady Security Editor
