Sophie the customs dog leads officials to €24,000 in undeclared cash

A coordinated search involving customs officials and the department's canine unit has led to the discovery of around €24,415 in undeclared cash, the Customs Department said in a statement.

Customs officials were screening passengers when Sophie started to indicate that a particular passenger might be carrying large amounts of cash. 

A search on the passenger yielded €16,100 in cash. 

€1,365 were found in the passenger’s hand luggage, while a further €4,950 were found in two pieces of already checked-in luggage. 

The passenger was handed over to the Police Anti-Money Laundering Unit for further investigation and is expected to be arriagned in court tommorow, the department said. 

Under European Law, cash over the sum of €10,000 needs to be declared to customs officials when arriving or departing.

520 undeclared bottles of wine seized from Paceville restaurant

Meanwhile, 520 bottles of undeclared wine were also seized from a restuarant in Paceville.

An investigation by the Department’s Excise Directorate into past imports by same restaurant, revealed a further several thousand bottles of wine which were put onto the market without tax having been paid on them. 

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