Harvey the dog who has helped Revenue located a large number of un-taxed cigarettes

REVENUE HAS SEIZED more than €25,000 worth of illegal tobacco in the past week.

This was done with a bit of assistance from Harvey the sniffer dog.

On Thursday a 34-year-old Polish man was stopped on his way through Cork Airport. Thanks to Harvey, officials discovered 15,000 ‘L&M Blue’ cigarettes being held in two suitcases with a retail value of €7,500.

In a seperate seizure yesterday a joint operation between An Garda Siochana and officers from Revenue’s Customs Service seized ‘Black Mount’, ’7′ and, ‘Flandria’ tobacco products when a car was stopped near Fermoy in Co Cork.

This seizure had a retail value of €19,500 with a potential loss to the Exchequer of more than €15,400.

Tobacco products seized yesterday.

Earlier today, Fermoy District Court heard Gerard Rafferty, with an address in Armagh, plead guilty to being in possession of 30,000 unstamped cigarettes and 10kg of rolling tobacco.

He was handed down a six month custodial sentence by Judge Brian Sheridan. A 51-year-old driver also pleaded not guilty and is being remanded in custody and is set to appear before Mallow District Court next Friday.

Read: Four men arrested after these dogs sniffed out €184,000 worth of drugs

Also: A whopping €90m-worth of drugs was destroyed in Ireland last year