Published Tuesday, 27 October 2009
More than 120 million cigarettes - valued at €50m - were stuffed in animal feed bags in a vessel that sailed to the Irish Republic from the Philippines.
Elite armed police swooped and raided four premises as the shipment was being delivered to an importer in the Co Louth area, just south of the border with Northern Ireland.
The operation - codenamed Samhna - targeted the suspected criminal activities of an organised crime group operating both north and south of the border.
Gardai are investigating if the massive haul is linked with dissident republicans.
Ireland's Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said the operation was a significant strike against organised crime.
"The success of the operation illustrates the results and benefits that flow from close inter-agency co-operation," he added.
With 80,000 cigarettes packed into each of the 1,489 bags the haul of Palace and Chelsea brands would have cost the Exchequer €40m.
The Irish Navy tracked the vessel as it approached Irish waters from the Mediterranean and, with the customs cutter vessel, kept it under surveillance as it sailed up the Irish Sea.
The ship's captain and his first officer, a Ukrainian in his 40s and a Lithuanian in his 50s, were detained.
Seven Irish men, including two from Co Armagh, who are aged between 19 and mid 40s were also arrested as the premises were being raided.
More than 150 officers from the various Irish and UK agencies were involved in the operation.
HMRC's John Whiting said the smuggling attempt was organised crime on a global scale.
"The gangs behind this form of criminality are motivated solely by greed and personal gain," said Mr Whiting, assistant director, criminal investigation.
"Their lavish lifestyles cost the UK taxpayers alone around £3bn per year in unpaid duty, and smuggling of this magnitude could devastate our local economies."
Paul Goggins MP, chair of the organised crime task force, commended the planning and execution of the operation.
"This historic seizure of smuggled cigarettes, the largest of its kind in the UK and Ireland - proves that the various law enforcement agencies are working as one to combat, frustrate and defeat organised criminal gangs," he added.