{"id":232,"date":"2021-06-18T10:56:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T10:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/?p=232"},"modified":"2025-04-29T10:25:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T10:25:33","slug":"tobacco-smuggling-through-irelands-ports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/2021\/06\/18\/tobacco-smuggling-through-irelands-ports\/","title":{"rendered":"No let-up in tobacco smuggling through Ireland\u2019s ports despite additional Brexit checks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Significant tobacco\nseizures at Ireland\u2019s ports in 2021 provide a clear indication that illicit\ntrade is stronger than ever despite the deterrent of additional Brexit related Revenue\nchecks. That is the reaction from Retailers\nAgainst Smuggling (RAS)<\/a>\nafter Revenue seized four tonnes of tobacco worth over \u20ac2.4 million at Dublin\nPort this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the fourth major\ntobacco and cigarette seizure by Revenue at Ireland\u2019s ports this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, two separate seizures in one day at Rosslare\nEuroport yielded 5.7 million cigarettes while in January, two tonnes of tobacco\nwere seized at Dublin Port. The potential loss to the exchequer of these four\nmajor seizures alone equates to \u20ac6 million, demonstrating that Irish ports\nremain a hotbed for smuggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting, national\nspokesperson for RAS, Benny Gilsenan said: \u201cThe issue of tobacco smuggling remains\na huge threat for registered and legitimate tobacco retailers like myself across\nIreland, whose legal cigarette trade can account for 20 \u2013 30 per cent of their\nbusiness. These major seizures when examined alongside the additional\ndetections made at our airports and through warranted searches, demonstrate that\nthe black market continues to be exceptionally active in 2021. The scale and\nmeans used to smuggle the tobacco seized at Dublin Port this week might also\nsuggest that it was intended for further illicit cigarette manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we commend and\nfully support the hard work undertaken by Revenue and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na in the\nfight against illicit trade, our fear is that these seizures are only the tip\nof the iceberg. If this is the extent of the goods being seized, it is\nfrightening to think about the volume of tobacco making it into the country\nunchecked costing the exchequer millions of euro in lost revenue and putting\nthe livelihoods of retailers at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its headline results\nfor 2020, Revenue reported a total of 4,390 seizures of cigarettes and other tobacco\nwith a value of \u20ac32.7m, this compares to a value of \u20ac10.52m for 2019\nrepresenting a threefold increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Gilsenan added: \u201cIt is\nvery plausible that Covid-19 international travel restrictions over the past\ntwelve months has led to a growth in demand for the black market, which these\ncriminals are trying to exploit by any means. For example, my own store alone\nexperienced an initial 40 per cent rise in tobacco sales when travel\nrestrictions were introduced but this has dropped right back to normal levels.\nSo it begs the question, where are these sales going given that travel\nrestrictions remain in place? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we are to seriously\ntackle the issue of illicit trade there needs to be much stricter sanctions and\nmore prosecutions for those who are caught smuggling. It is clear from the\nlevel of seizures recorded in 2020 and so far this year that the current\ndeterrents to smuggling are not strong enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Significant tobacco seizures at Ireland\u2019s ports in 2021 provide a clear indication that illicit trade is stronger than ever despite the deterrent of additional Brexit related Revenue checks. That is the reaction from Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) after Revenue seized four tonnes of tobacco worth over \u20ac2.4 million at Dublin Port this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","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\/232","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=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}