I hope these are not the business interests the Maltese government is trying to 'protect'

The Irish Independent reported in August 2009 (see story below) that the same routes used to smuggle arms from Tripoli via Malta to Ireland are believed to be used now to smuggle counterfeit cigarettes in a smuggling operation that involves dissident republicans from the “Real” IRA.

Perhaps the Gardai should check out the ongoing presence in Tripoli of one Ronald Agius, a name that is known to them already from investigations into IRA-related cigarette smuggling in 2000, an operation which involved intensive investigations in Malta. Agius spent some time in a Belgian jail in 1999, on cigarette-smuggling charges. He now regularly stays in Tripoli, where he claims to have several business interests.

Over the last few weeks he has posted comments on timesofmalta.com claiming that there is no violence in Tripoli and that it is all a conspiracy to cheat Gaddafi of what is rightfully his.

He has even posted a comment on this website, praising the Maltese government’s decision to ‘stay out of it’.

When I found out through those internet comments that he has business interests in Libya, I thought what on earth – it can’t be anything good, though of course he might have had a Damascene conversion in the last decade. But still – Tripoli?

He’s the official Libyan agent for some obscure brand of baby milk, among other things.

Then I read the archived newspaper report below and got some kind of clarity.

I am not saying that Ronald Agius is involved in this particular cigarette-smuggling operation now. I’m saying that he was involved in cigarette-smuggling in a related IRA context in the late 1990s, and that he is known to the Irish and Maltese police and to the Attorney-General’s office in this respect.

Of course, it might just be a coincidence that he is now in Tripoli. But you know what? Given all I know of the case in the late 1990s, I don’t think so.

I just hope that when the Maltese government says that it is working to protect Maltese business interests in Libya, it knows exactly what it is doing.

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The Independent (Ireland)

Sunday August 09 2009

The same smuggling routes used by the IRA to import weapons from Libya in the Eighties are now being used to import huge amounts the counterfeit cigarettes that are flooding the Irish market at a cost of between €500m and €1bn a year in lost taxes.

The dissident republicans from the “Real” IRA, based in north Louth and south Armagh, are believed to be the biggest smugglers but appear to be working alongside retired Provisional IRA bosses who are still heavily involved in smuggling.

Gardai are concerned that some portion of the massive profits being racked up by the dissidents are going to pay for weapons to carry out attacks on PSNI officers. The dissidents have been recruiting young men in Catholic areas in the North and last month were responsible for stirring up sectarian violence.

The State appears to be unable to prevent the importation of the counterfeit cigarettes, which are manufactured in China. Investigations by Interpol and other agencies have shown that Irish smugglers are sourcing their cigarettes in China, via the internet, then having them smuggled to Tripoli in Libya, probably using the same contacts in the military there who supplied the IRA with weapons in the early Eighties.

Sources say the cigarettes are shipped via Malta then by sea or land in containers to Irish ports. The fact that the Irish Customs only have one container-scanner makes Irish ports an ideal destination for smuggling. Gardai believe that the smuggling is so large and well organised that they are also trans-shipping cigarettes and tobacco into Britain.

The profits are “astonishing”, one garda said. A 40ft container of counterfeit cigarettes can be bought over the Internet via B2B (business to business) websites for as little as US$120,000. That represents 4.4 million cigarettes or 220,000 packs in a container, selling for about €3 less than the €8-plus price of the taxed legal product. One container represents a loss of over €1m in tax revenue to the State.

Fine Gael’s Jim O’Keeffe pointed out last week that figures supplied to him by the Revenue’s Customs wing admitted that the loss to the State in tax revenue is at least €500m. Mr O’Keeffe said that Government measures to combat the importation “have proved completely ineffective”.

“It is a scandalous situation that, according to the Revenue Commissioners’ estimate, 20 per cent of all cigarettes consumed in Ireland go untaxed. Other estimates are actually higher,” he said.

“It’s no surprise that the cigarette smuggling business continues to thrive when there is only one mobile container-scanner available to detect contraband on an island with a 1,900-mile-long coastline.

“A drawn-out procurement process to purchase a second scanner has been ongoing for at least 12 months and the latest indications from the Minister for Finance are that it will not be available until late this year.”

He called for the immediate deployment of additional resources to combat the smuggling.

– JIM CUSACK