SMOKERS who buy black market cigarettes are "playing into the hands of criminals" and funding crime, the tobacco industry has warned.

The Irish Tobacco Manufacturers Advisory Committee (ITMAC) said people were also running the risk of smoking counterfeit cigarettes produced without regulations in underground "cottage factories".

Spokeswoman Deirdre Healy was commenting after 120 million smuggled cigarettes, worth €50m were seized in Co Louth following a massive surveillance operation.

The haul was described as organised crime on a global scale and the Real IRA were linked to the seizure.

"From what the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice have been saying, it appears to be the case (that this is funding the activities of crime gangs) and it's rampant all around the country.

SEIZURE

"People should bear that in mind when they decide to buy counterfeit cigarettes, from this week's seizure, the message is there.

"So much of it is in the hands of criminals."

Ms Healy said as much as a quarter of tobacco products sold in Ireland were now contraband.

She said it was clear the cigarettes were destined for the Christmas market.

"One in four cigarettes in Ireland is not bought in an Irish shop, because it's too dear compared with the rest of the EU," she said.

"People are asking why they should spend €8.40 on a packet of cigarettes in a shop when they can get them for half that price on the street.

"We have also had reports of people selling them door-to-door, like the encyclopaedia salesmen of yesteryear.

"It is costing us millions, but apart from that, it is flooding the market with cigarettes produced without regulations.

"If you buy something from a man with a holdall in a bar, something that was made in an underground cottage factory in the Far East, what are you buying?

"It's a case of buyer beware."

PENALTIES

Ms Healy said ITMAC was calling on the Government to adopt a comprehensive strategy to deal with the problem involving the Departments of Justice, Finance and Health.

She said the industry was also calling for the introduction of stiffer penalties for those caught selling illegal cigarettes.

She said offenders tended to be prosecuted under the Casual Trading Act and the average court fine was in the "low hundreds" of euro.

"We accept the Government's position on smoking and the efforts it is making to reduce the numbers, but in reality the amount of people smoking is the same -- 33pc," Ms Healy added.

"So high prices don't stop people smoking, it stops them buying in their local shop".

aphelan@herald.ie

- Andrew Phelan