Customs officials seized €44,000 worth of smuggled tobacco at Cork Airport on Sunday.
Revenue detector dog Eva helped her handlers sniff out over 75kg of tobacco leaf after some routine profiling of passengers arriving in from Spain.
The smuggled tobacco was discovered in the checked baggage of three Irish nationals who had disembarked a flight from Alicante.
The Amber Leaf branded tobacco had an estimated retail value of approximately €44,260 representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of €36,735, Cork Beo reports.
Eva is a bit of a veteran now and has quite a track record - back in 2018, she sniffed out over €60,000 in cash that was being taken out of the country to Eastern Europe.
The money was believed to be the proceeds of serious criminal activity in Cork.
The tobacco seizures are part of Revenue's ongoing operations targeting the supply and sale of illegal tobacco products in the shadow economy.
Investigations are ongoing.
Tobacco smuggling is believed to cost the exchequer over €250m every year, robbing the state of some valuable revenues.
If businesses or members of the public have any information regarding the smuggling or sale of illegal cigarettes or tobacco, they can contact Revenue in confidence on Freephone 1800 295 295.
