Illegal diesel plant could have made €100,000 a week

A sophisticated diesel laundering plant uncovered by the Customs Service and gardaí outside Navan last Thursday had the capacity to launder 7.8 million litres of fuel per year. Four men were arrested following an early morning raid on two large sheds on a farm near Wilkinstown on Thursday in what was described as the culmination of a wide-ranging investigation by gardaí and customs personnel. The plant had been under surveillance for a period of time and customs officers said a fuel laundering operation was "in progress" when they raided the premises. The raid was a joint operation by officers from Revenue's Customs Service and Meath Gardai. Some 30,000 litres of laundered fuel and 12,000 litres of hazardous 'sludge', two tanker-trailer units and four vehicles were seized at the plant, along with ancilliary equipment. Revenue officials estimate the gang operating the plant could have been making a profit of close to €100,000 a week. The plant had the capacity to launder 7.8 million litres of fuel per annum with a potential tax loss to the exchequer of about €4 million every year. Four men, two from Northern Ireland, one from Meath and one from Louth, were arrested at the scene, but were later released without charge. A file is being prepared for the DPP. According to customs officials. the range of equipment found included bleaching earth used to remove dye from cheaper diesel. The plant would have been used to remove the dye from green diesel which is sold without duty for agricultural and off-road use and sells at about 70 cent a litre. Customs officials believe the green diesel was being brought to the plant, pumped into a second tanker, mixed with bleaching earth using a compressor, leaving a colourless diesel as the sediment containing the green dye fell to the bottom. The sediment, or sludge, is environmentally hazardous. The colourless diesel, which looks like legitimate fuel, is then transported to forecourts and officials believe it would have been sold to forecourts in the Republic as well as in Northern Ireland. These type of plants had been found closer to the border in the past, but following recent high-profile raids, particularly in counties Louth and Monaghan, such operations appear to have moved further from the border in the hope of avoiding detection. Plants have been uncovered in Laois and Offally in the past year. Customs officers say they are using a broad range of strategies to fight this activity, including sharing intelligence with their Northern Ireland counterparts, developing new methods of analysing fuel that has been laundered, covert surveillance and physical sampling at forecourts and at diesel tanks.