Ghosts launder fuel in NI....

Associated Press newswire reports ( 7.00pm Tuesday 17th May) 2 plants for the illegal laundering of dyed fuel have been uncovered in South Armagh (NI). They had a capacity of 3 Mn litres a year or a potential loss to the revenue of £1.5Mn. Dyed red diesel sells for 23p a litre while the clear white fuel costs about 87p per litre. (24th March 2005 another one was discovered in the same area with a 20,000 litres per week capacity = annual revenue loss =£0.7 Mn)

They were shut down in a joint operation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Revenue and Customs service.

3,250 litres of highly toxic acid waste was removed....the cleaning proces involves using large volumes of sulphuric acid.

Here is the kicker, the "...joint operation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Revenue and Customs service." was so effective that no arrests have been reported. (24th March 2005 another one was discovered in the same area with a 20,000 litres per week capacity = annual revenue loss =£0.7 Mn).... you got it, they didn't catch the perps then either...even the TV Bill would have had an "obbo".

On Wednesday 13th October 2004 a plant was dismantled in the Moneymore (!) area of Co Tyrone. The plant had the capacity to process approximately 30,000 litres of fuel per week = annual revenue loss of £0.9 Mn. Customs seized a tanker and in seperate premises another tanker plus 1500 litres of fuel, 210,120 cigs and 46.6 kgs of hand rolling tobacco. One person was arrested and questioned on the tobacco seizures then released.