Undercover agents target tobacco black market
STEPHEN FERNANE JOINED A TEAM OF INVESTIGATORS IN A COVERT ILLEGAL TOBACCO OPERATION ON KILLARNEY AND KILLORGLIN STREETS
PRIVATE investigators took part in a 48-hour covert operation in Killarney and Killorglin last week in an effort to clamp down on illegal tobacco and cigarette sales and they plan further operations in the county.
A team of four undercover agents combed the busy bars and streets of Killarney and Killorglin, sourcing contacts selling contraband, counterfeit and illicit ‘white brands’ of cigarettes on the black market.
Former Garda Detective Chief Superintendent, Kevin Donohoe, said the Kerry blitz was part of a national operation to assess the levels of illegal tobacco that are available in a given area.
Information on illicit sales are then passed on to local Gardaí and Revenue officials.
A TEAM of private investigators took part in a 48-hour undercover operation in Killarney and Killorglin last week in an effort to clamp down on illegal tobacco and cigarette sales which is now a nationwide problem costing the state around €300 million annually. THE covert operation was headed by former Garda Detective Chief Superintendent, Kevin Donohoe, and former Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector, Will O’Reilly, and was timed to coincide with the busy festival period during mid August.
“This undercover survey in Kerry is part of a national operation to assess the levels of illegal tobacco that are available in a given area,” explained Kevin Donohoe.
“Our big interest area is in ‘illicit whites’ which are brands associated with larger, illegal crime networks operating at a huge scale in Ireland and are mainly of Eastern European origin,”
‘Illicit whites’ are spurious cigarette brands manufactured in pop up factories in Eastern Europe, China and UAE and are widely available in Kerry to buy at a cost of around €5 per pack of 20 – less than half the cost of shop bought brands.
Over 65 different brands of illicit whites are known in Ireland, accounting for 70 per cent of total sales in illegal tobacco products.
The undercover operation started early on Thursday morning in the carpark of a Killarney hotel where I was introduced to a team of hired investigators. Minutes later an agent named ‘Sam’ makes a call to an Irish man she met in a Killarney pub the night before.
After several minutes, the call is eventually answered and Sam asks about the cigarettes she was promised:
“I’m meeting with my man on Friday and I can get you 200 Pall Mall cigarettes for €35. Is that okay? Friday is the soonest I’ll have them.”
Even though there is no cash transaction made on this occasion, it’s enough to inform them that illegal tobacco is available and being sold locally.
Given the size of towns like Killarney and Killorglin, large supplies of tobacco are brought in from outside the county at different times and depending on demand.
The days that social welfare payments are paid out are often when illegal tobacco products are sold in large quantities and their distribution tends to thrive primarily in socially disadvantaged areas which is not a surprise considering brands sell for as low as €3.50 per pack.
We leave Killarney shortly after 11am and make for Killorglin where Puck Fair is in full swing. The undercover agents spilt up into two groups and search the streets asking for places where cigarettes can be bought.
Sam goes into a pub and meets a man who says he goes abroad regularly to get cigarettes saying “there’s great money in them”.
The man says he is low in stock just now but manages to sell a pack of illicit whites named ‘Gold Mount’ and a counterfeit pouch of ‘Amber Leaf ’ tobacco for around €11.
As well as illicit whites, counterfeit and contraband are also widely available in Kerry.
THE DAYS WHEN SOCIAL WELFARE IS PAID OUT IS OFTEN WHEN ILLEGAL TOBACCO PRODUCTS ARE SOLD IN LARGE QUANTITIES
The latter are basically real brands bought overseas at low cost and sold here for a fraction of their retail value, while the former are poorly manufactured versions of real brands - an example being the pouch of tobacco purchased in Killorglin which was poorly sealed and contained loose fragments of tobacco in the packaging, something not seen in genuine brands.
Later that afternoon we head back to Killarney for one last search of the town and it doesn’t take long before an agent, this time Remy, gets a call from a Polish man to say he knows of someone selling cigarettes.
The meeting takes place in the middle of Killarney as shoppers and tourists pass by unaware that a sale is taking place.
A man with an Eastern European accent soon arrives and sells us four packs of illicit brands and a pouch of counterfeit tobacco for €35.
Kevin Donohoe believes a sale like this is probably costing the seller €17 and if the same stash were purchased legally, it would cost anything from €65 to €70.
“These sales are part of major criminal operations and a container load from Asia or Eastern Europe can strike anything up to €1 million. We’ve received reports that these stashes are now being brought in concealed in shipments of furniture,” said Kevin.
“So far in Killarney and Killorglin there would be significantly less than we’d find nationally, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t being purchased in high numbers here.
“Often these undercover operations are fast and designed to give just a snapshot and there can be many different reasons on any given day why they’re not being sold, which doesn’t necessarily suggest their absence.”
Kevin also believes that even aside from the obvious losses to the Exchequer and the impact illegal sales have on legitimate retailers in terms of jobs and income, the situation is now so bad that new types of illicit brands found in Ireland are popping up in the UK a week or two later, suggesting cigarettes are first being shipped here before being shipped to the UK.
Such a scenario is also likely to come into sharper focus once plans for Brexit are finally in place and closer cross border scrutiny gains more traction.
All information gathered during the operation will now be forwarded to local Gardaí and to Revenue officials.