The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, has said her “top priority” is to ensure gardaí are resourced enough to dismantle gangs involved in flooding the country with cocaine and other harmful illegal drugs.
The Minster, speaking though a spokesperson, also said that “given the global nature of the drugs trade, collaboration at an inter-agency and international level is key to tackling this issue”.
Ms McEntee was commenting in response to criticism of her and the government from Independent Limerick City and County Councillor, Emmett O’Brien.
He said his warnings since 2018 about supply levels of cocaine had been “ignored” by the minister and the government, that the gardaí and the naval services had been under-resourced and, that Minister McEntee had treated rank and file Gardai with “compete disregard”.
Cllr O’Brien made his comments on Wednesday as customs officers and gardaí continued searching the Verila, a Maltese flagged bulk cargo ship at Foynes Port, Co Limerick, after €21 million worth of cocaine was found on board the vessel Tuesday.
“Tackling drug dealing and associated criminal activity, including by organised crime groups, is a top priority for An Garda Síochána and the Government,” said a spokesman on behalf of Minister McEntee.
“It is a priority for An Garda Síochána to disrupt and dismantle organised crime gangs and drug dealing operations, and to remove illegal drugs from circulation,” he said.
“Yesterday’s seizure in Foynes is an example of this in action and Minister McEntee would like to thank An Garda Síochána and Revenue for their work in stopping this large shipment of cocaine reaching communities in the Mid-West and beyond.”
“This follows one of the biggest ever seizures of drugs in Ireland off the South East Coast back in September and An Garda Síochána are consistently making smaller seizures all over the country every day.”
He said Minister McEntee was “committed to ensuring An Garda Síochána have the resources they need to tackle all drug crime”.
“This is reflected in the unprecedented allocation of €2.3 billion in Budget 2024 to allow for sustained investment in recruitment, technology and equipment.”
“The record budgetary resources allocated to An Garda Síochána in recent years have enabled the Garda Commissioner to assign extra resources to the specialist units involved in tackling organised crime, including the Armed Support Unit, GNDOCB, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).”
Minister McEntee’s spokesperson said the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau “leads in tackling all forms of drug trafficking and the supply of illicit drugs in Ireland”, but he said, “given the global nature of the drugs trade, collaboration at an inter-agency and international level is key to tackling this issue”.
“An Garda Síochána has strong and strategic partnerships in place at international level targeting drug trafficking, including working closely with relevant law enforcement agencies such as INTERPOL and Europol and participating in the Maritime Analysis Operations Centre for Narcotics (MAOC-N)”
