{"id":201,"date":"2020-05-11T14:28:33","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T14:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/?p=201"},"modified":"2025-04-29T10:31:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T10:31:19","slug":"cigarette-seizures-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/2020\/05\/11\/cigarette-seizures-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Seizures worth over \u20ac7.9m indicate cigarette smugglers are thriving despite coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Rigorous monitoring and increased checks by Revenue are essential to combat a potential increase in illicit trade of cigarettes over the coming months. That is the call from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/\">Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS)<\/a> who have raised concern over the potential growth of the black market as a result of Covid-19 and the upcoming ban on menthol cigarettes in Ireland, which comes into effect on Wednesday, 20<sup>th<\/sup> May 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commenting,\nnational spokesperson for RAS and Dublin based retailer, Benny Gilsenen said: \u201cSignificant\nseizures of cigarettes by Revenue in recent weeks, including two hauls at\nDublin Port worth over \u20ac7.9m, indicates that the black economy is alive and\nwell. As retailers across the country are struggling to adapt to the new\noperational realities and costs of Covid-19, these seizures tell us that it is\nvery much business as usual for the criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile\nwe commend the efforts of Revenue in ensuring that these cigarettes do not\nreach the black market, including another seizure in Donegal over the weekend\nworth \u20ac40,000, there is no room for complacency in clamping down on cross-border\nsmuggling, particularly in light of the new regulations coming into effect this\nmonth. Retailers like myself are very concerned that the ban on menthol\ncigarettes, which account for approximately 18 per cent of tobacco sales in\nIreland, will result in a widening of a black market that is already having an\nadverse effect on local retailers. We have already witnessed a growth in the\ntrade of illicit menthol cigarettes in the UK over recent months and there is a\nreal risk we will see a similar trend emerge here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ban\nis being introduced to follow the completion of a four-year phasing-in period\nunder a 2016 EU directive on tobacco products. According to its 2019 Annual\nReport, Revenue seized 3,215 cigarettes and 1,445 other tobacco products, at a\ntotal value of \u20ac10.52 million. This represented a 75 per cent drop since the\nsame period in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr\nGilsenen added: \u201cLooking at the significant drop in seizures between 2018 and\n2019, it is glaringly obvious that criminal\ngangs are using whatever means necessary to evade detection and keep their\nillegal finances thriving. The spate of seizures in the last week should serve\nas a wake-up call for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rigorous monitoring and increased checks by Revenue are essential to combat a potential increase in illicit trade of cigarettes over the coming months. That is the call from Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) who have raised concern over the potential growth of the black market as a result of Covid-19 and the upcoming ban on menthol [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cigarette-smuggling","category-illicit-cigarettes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}