An illicit cigarette factory in north Louth had the capacity to manufacture 3m cigarettes a day, court heard

An illicit cigarette factory in north Louth, which was raided by gardaí and customs five years ago had the capacity to manufacture 3 million cigarettes a day, with a daily loss to the exchequer of €1.2 million, Dundalk Circuit Court heard last Thursday.

Vytautas Sakinis, who lived at the plant at Killin, Jenkinstown pleaded guilty to being concerned with the processing of illicit tobacco products on March 15th 2018.

A surveillance operation was put in place after the authorities here were notified that an illicit cigarette factory was operating at an unknown location in Ireland and it was established that workers were briefly taken to accommodation in the Drogheda before being taken to the factory.

When the joint Garda and Revenue raid was carried out, they discovered a ladder leaning against a substantial quantity of hay bales.

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Eleven men were found in makeshift living quarters beside the production line which had three machines to make the cigarettes, put them in counterfeit Mayfair packs and package and box them.

Twenty three million cigarettes were discovered in boxes at the site.

The defendant - who was 26 at the time and had an environmental engineering degree, had told Revenue officials that he had responded to a job ad he had seen on a website in Lithuania.

His flight here was paid for before he signed the contract, and the workers later returned here by ferry.

Two of Mr. Sakinis' co-accused were given custodial sentences of 10 and 12 months, another was given an 18 month suspended sentence, and seven others were given 10 month suspended jail terms, on them leaving the State and not returning for more than three years.

Judge Hayes imposed a 15 month sentence which he suspended in full on the defendant entering a bond to be of good behaviour for that period.