{"id":488473,"date":"2025-10-10T13:52:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/488473\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T13:52:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:52:17","slug":"seven-arrested-after-officers-discover-one-of-nis-biggest-illegal-tobacco-factories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/488473\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven arrested after officers discover \u2018one of NI\u2019s biggest illegal tobacco factories\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The factory was found in Newry<\/p>\n

\"Seven<\/p>\n

Seven men were in connection with the set up<\/p>\n

\"thumbnail:\"thumbnail:<\/p>\n

One of Northern Ireland\u2019s largest illegal tobacco factories has been dismantled following a raid by authorities.<\/p>\n

The \u201cstate-of-the-art factory\u201d was discovered in Newry on Monday by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) supported by the PSNI.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson for HMRC said that officers found expensive machinery, professional extraction equipment and insulation to mask noise.<\/p>\n

Nine tonnes of tobacco and 1.25m cigarettes were confiscated with an estimated value of over \u00a33m in unpaid duty.<\/p>\n

\"Seven<\/p>\n

Seven men were in connection with the set up<\/p>\n

Seven men were subsequently arrested on suspicion of fraudulent evasion of duty and investigations are ongoing. <\/p>\n

Dermot Clarke, operational lead in HMRC\u2019s Fraud Investigation Service said: \u201cThis was one of the most sophisticated tobacco factories we have ever uncovered in Northern Ireland and this will be a significant blow to the organised criminals we believe are behind it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The factory was found in Newry<\/p>\n

Belfast History Explained: Who was Sheila the Elephant?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe illicit tobacco trade steals money from public services, undercuts legitimate businesses and funds other crimes that impact our communities.<\/p>\n

“We encourage anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco or alcohol to report it to HMRC online.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The factory was found in Newry Seven men were in connection with the set up One of Northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[155107,1384,1144,1610,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-488473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-abdullah-sabri","9":"tag-down-news","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115350205231354376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}