{"id":252,"date":"2021-08-31T11:25:27","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T11:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/?p=252"},"modified":"2025-04-29T10:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T10:25:09","slug":"raw-tobacco-seized-points-to-illegal-cigarette-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/2021\/08\/31\/raw-tobacco-seized-points-to-illegal-cigarette-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"13.5 tonnes of raw tobacco seized points to large-scale illegal cigarette manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) has warned that 13.5 tonnes of loose raw tobacco seized by Revenue<\/a> so far this year indicates the likelihood of large-scale illegal cigarette factories operating on the island of Ireland. To date Revenue has announced four major seizures of loose raw tobacco with a combined estimated retail value of \u20ac8.1 million representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of \u20ac6.7m. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting, RAS national\nspokesperson, Benny Gilsenan said: \u201cThe significant volume of the consignments\nbeing seized, and the elaborate means being used to conceal this raw tobacco\nsuggests that it\u2019s unlikely the product is intended for direct resale to the\nconsumer on the black market. The recent spike in these types of seizures has risen\nsuspicion among legitimate retailers that the intended destination is likely to\nbe illegal cigarette making factories operated by criminal gangs in either the\nRepublic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2018, Garda\u00ed and\nRevenue officials uncovered the first illegal commercial-scale cigarette\nproduction plant found in the State in Jenkinstown Co. Louth, which was capable\nof producing up to 250,000 cigarettes per hour. During that raid up to 66\ntonnes of raw tobacco were seized which gives us sense of the volume of tobacco\nproduct required to run such an operation. The fear among retailers is that the\nvolumes of raw tobacco now being seized at Irish ports are at a level which indicates\nthat similar underground facilities are operational on the island of Ireland.\nFor example, we know that roughly 13-15 million cigarettes could be produced\nfrom the 13.5 tonnes of raw tobacco seized alone, and we suspect further large\nvolumes are getting into the country undetected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Gilsenan added: \u201cSince\nthe Jenkinstown raid several other illegal factories have been uncovered,\nprimarily around the border regions, which suggests a link to illegal\ncross-border trade and criminal activity. The most recent seizure of an illegal\nfactory on the island was in Armagh in July this year, which could produce 390\nmillion cigarettes a year. While we fully commend and support the work of\nRevenue and An Garda Sioch\u00e1na as well as their counterparts in Northern Ireland\nin detecting smuggled tobacco and cigarettes, we believe more can be done by\npolicymakers to tackle the growing illegal trade in tobacco products in\nIreland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its recent Pre-Budget 2022 submission<\/a> to Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, RAS highlighted how continuous excise increases on tobacco are fuelling demand for a growing black market. This is resulting in increased levels of smuggling activity, impacting registered and legitimate retailers who face unfair \u2018competition\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe operation of illegal\ncigarette factories is just one challenge facing the retail sector. We are also\nvery concerned by the additional spate of illicit cigarette and roll your own\n(RYO) tobacco seizures by Revenue so far this year. To date over 35 million\ncigarettes and over 20 tonnes of RYO tobacco have been seized highlighting just\nhow active the black market currently is. The combined estimated retail value\nof all seizures this year amounts to over \u20ac45 million, close to \u20ac8 million more\nthan the total for 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are calling on\nGovernment to consider the impact this increased rate of smuggling is having on\nretailers. The continued growth of the black market can only be halted by\nstopping the continuous excise increases on cigarette and tobacco products, the\nretail price of which is 121 per cent above the EU average according to a new\nEurostat survey issued today\u201d, Mr Gilsenan concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13.5 tonnes of raw tobacco seized so far this year indicates the likelihood of large-scale illegal cigarette factories operating on the island of Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,28],"tags":[50,25,51,52,53,54,55,47,56,39,57,13,49],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cigarette-smuggling","category-illicit-cigarettes","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-benny-gilsenan","tag-co-louth","tag-eurostat","tag-illegal-cigarette-manufacturing","tag-jenkinstown","tag-loose-tobacco","tag-minister-for-finance","tag-paschal-donohoe-td","tag-ras","tag-raw-tobacco","tag-retailers-against-smuggling","tag-revenue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","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=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":570,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}