Mr. Michael Gilligan:

I thank the committee. First, in the context of illicit cigarette production and smuggling, the idea that Ireland is a discrete or isolated location, within which the availability of smuggled or illicit tobacco is a result of local criminal activity, is not the reality. The production and smuggling of illicit tobacco is transnational. It is a significant area of organised crime. It involves a range of activities coming together in the sense that it is complex, organised, multi-layered and is undertaken by professional criminal enterprises. It is also definitely linked, directly or indirectly, to other criminal activities.

In this case, we had three internationally-organised crime gangs involved from Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland. They had come together to put a factory in place. It was a full end-to-end professional factory in Jenkinstown and was unusual in that, under normal circumstances in Europe, the experience has been that we do not get a fully commercial end-to-end illicit factory in one place.

It is normally sectioned and kept in different locations, primarily because if law enforcement came across it, they would only lose one piece at a time. The volume of tobacco on-site was 77 tonnes and the number of cigarettes produced was 22 million or 23 million. This gives an indication of the size of the operation that was undertaken. Not only is there the production of cigarettes and their distribution, all the precursors, as we call them - the tobacco, paper, filters, glue, cardboard, cellophane and all the aspects which have to come together to produce the final product - had to be transported to this location. There were 11 people on-site 24 hours a day for the period involved, which we believe was for periods of up to two weeks, and they had the operation running 24-7. They had shower facilities, kitchen facilities and accommodation facilities on-site in what, when one looks at it, appears to be a normal farm shed. However, behind bales of hay, it was a professional and commercial factory. Some of the international cigarette manufacturers who came to the site to have a look at it were surprised at how sophisticated the operation was.