Tobacco beer and wine seized at Rosslare Europort

By Dan Walsh

Tobacco, beer and wine with a combined value of €300,000 has been seized over the past week in three routine operations at Rosslare Europort.

Last Saturday, Revenue officers seized approximately 77.5kgs of ‘roll your own tobacco’ and over 500 litres of wine, with a combined estimated retail value of €61,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of €46,000.

The smuggled tobacco and alcohol were discovered with the assistance of Revenue’s mobile x-ray scanner, following the search of an Irish registered truck and its accompanying trailer that had disembarked a ferry from Le Havre, France.

Also on Saturday, Revenue officers seized almost 26,000 litres of beer following the search of a Polish registered truck that had disembarked a ferry from Dunkirk, France. The smuggled alcohol had an estimated retail value of over €103,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of more than €48,000.

Last Tuesday, Revenue officers seized almost 11,300 litres of wine with an estimated retail value of over €137,000, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of more than €73,000, following the search of an unaccompanied trailer that had arrived on a ferry from Zeebrugge, Belgium.

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.