£50m of illegal cigarettes seized

Illegal cigarettes valued at £50m have been recovered across the island of Ireland in less than two years.

In Northern Ireland, 12 million cigarettes put at £3.3m were seized in the past financial year, a cross-border law enforcement conference was told.

Authorities in the Republic recovered 160 million cigarettes, estimated to be worth £46.5m in the past 20 months.

Up to 70% of seized cigarettes are thought to be counterfeit, delegates at the Enniskillen conference heard.

PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde and An Garda Síochána Commissioner Fachtna Murphy attended the conference, as did Northern Ireland Security Minister Paul Goggins and his southern counterpart Dermot Ahern.

Northern Ireland's figures for illicit cigarettes were collated on the basis of the 2007/08 financial year, and the total recovered in the last 20 months is thought to be much greater than the official statistics, the conference heard.

Co-operation

Delegates were told that the biggest cigarette seizure to date by authorities from both sides of the border was made last May, when a shipment of almost 26 million cigarettes was intercepted en route from Singapore.

Another example of cross-border co-operation was the joint operation by the PSNI, Garda and Dutch to seize more than 200 guns; £317,000 (402,000 euro) in cash; and cannabis and heroin worth £3.25m destined for criminal gangs, the conference heard.

The conference saw the launch of the Cross Border Organised Crime Assessment 2008, which outlines work being done to tackle emerging threats.

Mr Goggins said developing cross-border partnerships was essential in the fight against organised crime.

"The threats on both sides of the border are, in many cases, similar and with law enforcement agencies working together we are meeting the challenges with a robust and effective response to organised crime, whenever and wherever it surfaces," he said.

Mr Ahern said the seminar was "proof of the high levels of cross-border co-operation that already exist and that are being further developed on a daily basis".

"The cross-border crime assessment contains many examples of how effective our law enforcement agencies are when they work together to tackle common problems in a co-ordinated and co-operative way."