Revenue has seized herbal cannabis with an estimated street value of €124,000 in County Laois.
Officers found the cannabis in a consignment of parcels that arrived in to the Portlaoise Mail Centre from Thailand.
The parcels, marked as ‘gifts,’ were discovered through routine profiling.
Cannabis herb uncovered in Portlaoise. Image: Revenue
Separately Revenue officers in Dublin seized a consignment of 10,000 unstamped cigarettes branded ‘NZ Gold.’
The cigarettes were concealed in packaging marked as ‘insulation equipment’ and were sent to Ireland from Belarus.
NZ Gold cigarettes. Image: Revenue
Yesterday a separate consignment of 10,000 cigarettes with the same markings and also sent from Belarus was seized following searches at a house in Lucan, County Dublin.
A man and a woman, both in their 50s, were questioned.
The 20,000 cigarettes have a retail value of €11,000 – representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of €8,870.