Weapons, ammunition and drugs among items seized from post by Revenue

Ken Foxe

Revenue Commissioners seized tens of thousands of items sent through the post over the last year, including weapons, ammunition, tobacco, drugs, and fake medicinal products.

A detailed breakdown of seizures shows that more than 92,000 smuggled cigarettes were intercepted last year, along with almost another thousand that were unstamped.

There were also over 216kg of narcotics stopped at the Dublin Parcel Hub, as well as 5.8 litres of illegal drugs in liquid form.

Revenue said nearly 2,200 weapons – including knives and other items – were seized, along with three pieces of ammunition.

Two pieces of drug paraphernalia were intercepted, as were 306 tablets of medicinal products, either counterfeit or real.

There were also large volumes of tablets seized, with 97,500 discovered in the mail, while another 1,018 psychoactive tablets were found in postal items.

Nine litres of wine were intercepted, according to the database, as well as over 55kg of loose smuggled or unstamped tobacco.

Revenue said there had been no seizures made under intellectual property laws or through CITES, an international agreement to crack down on global trade of endangered animals and plants.

There were also miscellaneous seizures reported, with 8.69kg of “fiscal other” material taken into custody, along with 3,148 items that were simply categorised as “other” in the data.

A spokesperson for Revenue said: “[We maintain] a presence in mail centres across the country in order to deal with customs related matters arising from the import of goods and parcels via the postal system and to oversee imports from the standpoint of prohibitions on the importation of certain illicit products.

“Revenue’s enforcement teams at the main postal depots routinely profile these goods and carry out x-ray examinations, physical examinations and deploy the use of detector dogs based on risk assessment, encompassing both smuggling risk in respect of prohibited goods, and risk to the Exchequer from loss of certain duties and taxes.”