TWO MEN have been arrested after customs officers seized €35,000 from two men who were about to board a flight abroad from Dublin Airport.

The men, aged in their 20s and 30s, were stopped and searched as they attempted to board a flight to Charleroi in Belgium.

The cash, which was concealed on their persons and in their luggage, was seized by customs officers.

The officers were this morning granted a three-month detention order to retain the cash to carry out further inquiries.

Separately, earlier this week, two men were arrested when attempting to smuggle cigarettes into the country from the Canary Islands.

A 22-year-old Latvian national and resident in Gran Canaria was found carrying 14,600 ‘Ronhill’ cigarettes, with a retail value of €6,658 and a potential loss to the Exchequer of €5,244.

He was arrested and appeared before Judge Bryan Smyth where he was remanded in custody to appear in court again next Tuesday 2013.

In a second incident on Tuesday, 29,960 ‘Ronhill’ cigarettes – worth €13,663, and with a potential Exchequer loss of €12,592 – were discovered in the baggage of a 36-year-old Latvian national living in Tenerife.

That man was arrested and appeared before Judge Patricia McNamara the following day when he pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to two months in jail.