{"id":277,"date":"2021-12-29T10:49:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T10:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/?p=277"},"modified":"2025-04-29T10:21:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T10:21:30","slug":"record-year-for-large-scale-tobacco-smuggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/2021\/12\/29\/record-year-for-large-scale-tobacco-smuggling\/","title":{"rendered":"Retailers feel impact of record year for large-scale tobacco smuggling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><em>Increase in\nlarge seizures of illicit tobacco and cigarettes points to lucrative black\nmarket for organised crime gangs <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A significant spike in major seizures of cigarette and tobacco products in 2021, suggests that the black market being exploited by crime gangs is more lucrative than ever. That\u2019s according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/\">Retailers Against Smuggling<\/a> (RAS) reflecting on one of the busiest years for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.revenue.ie\/en\/Home.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Revenue  (opens in a new tab)\">Revenue <\/a>which announced 57 major tobacco seizures over the past 12 months, 14 of which had an estimated retail value of over \u20ac1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commenting on the impact felt\nby registered and legitimate retailers, National Spokesperson for Retailers\nAgainst Smuggling, Benny Gilsenan said: \u201cThe sheer magnitude of seizures\nreported by Revenue this year vindicates our concerns that tobacco smuggling is\non a sharp rise. This is resulting in a rapidly growing black market which retailers\nlike myself simply cannot compete against. It\u2019s clear that criminal gangs are taking\nadvantage of the tidy profits that can now be made from illicit tobacco while undercutting\nlegitimate retail prices. The large consignments we\u2019re seeing seized, primarily\nat our major ports, is just the tip of the iceberg. &nbsp;We know that the majority of illicit product\nbeing smuggled into the country is finding its way onto the black market\nhitting the bottom line of registered retailers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A RAS analysis of Revenue announcements\nmade via press release in 2021 vs 2020 shows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A\ntotal of 57 major seizure announcements were made in 2021, up 24.<\/li><li>14\nof these seizures were valued over \u20ac1 million, up four.<\/li><li>Over\n50.2 million cigarettes were seized, up 2.1 million from last year.<\/li><li>Over\n35.5 tonnes of loose and roll your own tobacco was seized, up 28.4 tonnes.<\/li><li>28\nmajor seizures were made at Dublin Port and Rosslare Europort, up 15.<\/li><li>The\ntotal estimated retail value of seizures to date is over \u20ac57.1 million, up\n\u20ac24.4 million.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Organised crime gangs\nbehind tobacco black market activity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Gilsenan continued: \u201cThe\ndiscovery of 906kg of tobacco linked with last month\u2019s \u20ac9.8m drugs seizure at\nDublin Port clearly indicates the type of organised crime gangs behind large-scale\ntobacco smuggling. We continue to argue that the current Government policy of\nplacing annual excise increases on tobacco products is making illicit tobacco\ntrade a more lucrative and appealing market for these gangs. This is further\nfuelled by growing consumer demand as smokers are forced to turn to the black\nmarket due to duty paid tobacco products sold by registered retailers becoming\ntoo expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is growing apprehension\namong the retail community that the financial incentives for gangs bringing\nproduct onto the black market now far outweigh any risks. For example, other\nthan the possibility of the product being detected and seized, there appears to\nbe no obvious deterrents such as meaningful court prosecutions which might make\ncriminals think twice about smuggling large-scale illicit tobacco consignments into\nthe country. We can also be sure that criminal gangs account for in advance the\nprojected percentage loss associated with the detection and seizure of product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Detection and\nprevention key to stemming tobacco smuggling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Gilsenan concluded:\n\u201cAt the same time we must fully\ncommend the work undertaken by Revenue and Customs officers this year to yield\nsuch an increase in large-scale seizures, particularly at our major ports. It\u2019s\nalso encouraging to see continued investment in technology like the\nstate-of-the-art mobile x-ray container scanner deployed at Rosslare Europort, to\nhelp officers successfully detect illicit product. These detection efforts are\ncritical in stemming supply into the black market, protecting both the\nExchequer and registered retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHowever, until key\nindividuals behind these crime gangs are targeted and handed appropriate\nprosecutions, they will continue to find more sophisticated means to smuggle large\nshipments of illicit tobacco. Financially, tobacco smuggling has now become a core\npillar of the business models for these gangs. As a preventative approach at\nGovernment level, greater focus needs to be placed on delivering robust prosecutions\nand in turn strengthening the deterrent to engage in tobacco smuggling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Increase in large seizures of illicit tobacco and cigarettes points to lucrative black market for organised crime gangs <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22,28],"tags":[25,59,46,49,58],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cigarette-smuggling","category-government-news","category-illicit-cigarettes","tag-benny-gilsenan","tag-customs","tag-dublin-port","tag-revenue","tag-rosslare-europort"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","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=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}