From: Independent.ie
Provos team up with shadowy Malay ‘businessman’ to flood the south Pacific with illegal cigarettes
Jim Cusack
The multi-million euro IRA cigarette smuggling ring busted by Spanish police at New Year had linked up with Malaysian-based racketeers supplying illicit tobacco to the Australian market, the Sunday Independent has learned.
Spanish police are seeking to question a Malaysian “businessman” and his wife who were supplying South Armagh Provisionals from South-east Asia.
It has also emerged that Provo smugglers have closely examined how new ‘plain packaging’ laws – due to be introduced in Ireland – have boosted the illicit tobacco trade in Australia.
The Malaysian businessman had a base in Spain and was in regular contact with the IRA gang whose tobacco was originating from Vietnam, Indonesia and China.
