REVENUE CONDUCTED A number of operations across the country in the past two weeks as it cracked down on the illegal puppy trade and unlicensed alcohol industry.
Last Wednesday, Revenue officers from Dublin Port seized alcohol worth over €7,500 from a restaurant in Dublin’s south inner city.
The premises was operating without a liquor licence and officers removed beer, wine and spirits with an estimated retail value in excess of €7,500. Revenue said the alcohol was seized under the provisions of section 125A of the Finance Act 2001, which “provides for the forfeiture of alcohol products from unlicensed premises”.
A week before that, officers at Rosslare Port seized €9,400 in cash when they stopped and questioned two Romanians as they prepared to board a late evening ferry to Cherbourg in France.
‘Criminal Activity’
Revenue said they confiscated the cash because they suspected it to be the “proceeds of, or intended for use in, criminal activity”.
Judge Gerard Haughton of Gorey District Court, Wexford, put a three month detention order on the money to give officers time to investigate the source of the cash.
On Saturday night and Sunday morning, 13 puppies destined for the mainland UK market were seized at Dublin Port.
The pre-Christmas operation is the latest in a number of high-profile seizures on shipping routes on the Irish Sea. Campaigners have warned that illegal dog-breeding on an industrial scale is turning Ireland into the “puppy farm capital of Europe”.
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