Cigarette smugglers 'using Ireland'

Ireland remains one of the "preferred destinations" in the EU for cigarette smuggling because of its comparatively high taxes on tobacco, a new report into criminal activity in the union has found.

Europol, the agency that handles criminal intelligence within the union, published its EU Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2011 today.

It covers a wide range of criminal activity, including the drugs trade, illegal immigration, human trafficking, fraud, counterfeiting, property and environmental crime and weapons trafficking.