Warning as £3m tobacco seizure bound for Ulster

THE seizure of almost £3m worth of smuggled cigarettes in Dublin should serve as a reminder that anyone buying them here is “funding the murder of their neighbours”, it has been claimed.

Former PSNI assistant chief constable Alan McQuillan – now an international crime consultant – gave the warning after Irish customs officers seized eight million cigarettes in Dublin which “were destined for the Northern Ireland market”.

A report by the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) in March strongly linked cigarette smuggling to dissident republican groups CIRA and the RIRA. One month after the IMC report a dissident republican bomb claimed the life of PSNI constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh.

The Dublin contraband was seized on Monday at the city’s port and is estimated to have a retail value of £2.7m and a loss to the Irish exchequer of £2.2m. The illegal consignment arrived in Dublin from Spain in a 40ft maritime container declared as “paper products” and contained “Regal”, “Richman” and “Hoop” brand cigarettes.

A Northern Ireland-registered commercial vehicle and trailer were seized as part of the operation.

Investigations are ongoing both nationally and internationally into the haul.

A spokeswoman for the Irish customs office said this latest seizure brings the total number of cigarettes it has seized to date in 2011 to around 87 million, with a total retail value of about £28.9m.

Former Assets Recovery Agency chief Mr McQuillan said the seizure of cigarettes in Dublin would cause “serious damage” to dissidents.

“It seems quite clear that dissident republicans are inextricably linked to organised crime and they are probably using this money to fund paramilitary operations,” he said.

“But really what you have here is organised crime gangs. It has to be priority for the community to get behind the police in order to stop these economic and terrorist crimes.

“I am delighted to see this seizure in Dublin but what we really need is for people to stop buying illegal cigarettes.

“They need to know that their money is going to kill their neighbours through dissident republican terrorism.”

On Monday the News Letter reported that Northern Ireland customs officers have quadrupled raids against fuel laundering plants here since 2008/09, which the IMC also strongly linked to dissident republicans.