Gardai and Revenue Customs Service officers nabbed three men running a fuel laundering plant out of a curtain-sided truck in Co. Monaghan, Business and Leadership reported.

The Revenue Customs Service- the Irish equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service- and the Garda- police - found the Longfield, Castleblaney operation through surveillance activity, according to a statement from Revenue.

Oil laundering involves removing identifying dye from fuels that have a lower tax standard than average, to enable sale to motorists at a profit. This plant included the truck, a van, two forty foot containers, two tankers,and  40,000 litres of laundered oil. Gardai and Revenue officers sprung upon the plant while it was still running.

The operation was also rife with toxic waste, Business and Leadership reported.

The plant’s capacity could have cost the Irish government 7.5 million euros per year in lost taxes.

Two of the arrested men are in their mid-thirties, and one is in his early sixties. The Garda stations at Carickmacross and Castleblayney are currently holding the suspects for questioning, Business and Leadership wrote.