Customs crack down on illegal fuel in province
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• Northern Ireland's Customs Service has had a number of successes in targeting illegal diesel producers.
Three men were charged after a million-litre-a-year diesel laundering plant was uncovered in County Antrim.
The raid, on 8 August, took place after firefighters had become suspicious of storage tanks on the premises while they were putting out a fire.
The illegal plant was capable of returning £500,000 profit in a year.
Two days earlier, 20,000 litres were seized in Crossmaglen from a crude mobile laundering plant. A truck and a van were also seized by customs officers.
"Fuel produced in this operation would have been full of acids; anybody using it could expect engine problems," says a Customs spokesman.
And one week earlier, in Dungannon, a rigid curtainsider overturned on a roundabout causing its hidden cargo of 10,000 gallons of petrol to flow down the road.
The driver ran away but a vehicle record check showed it to have been bought with false identification.
In July, Customs seized some 51,000 litres of laundered fuel, an oil tanker, a 4x4 jeep, a van, and a telescopic transporter, in County Tyrone.
The laundering plants take cheap agricultural oil from the Republic and mix it with acid to remove the green marker dye.
The fuel Is then sold as "genuine" smuggled road diesel.
The Customs spokesman adds that anyone caught using the fuel could have their truck confiscated.