Major drugs seizures have shown that Ireland “is standing up” to the challenge of disrupting narcotics being smuggled by organised crime gangs.
There have been three significant seizures in Ireland since Thursday: cocaine valued at €7.2 million at Rosslare Port, cannabis worth more than €16 million also at Rosslare and cocaine valued at €10.5 million at Dublin Port.
More than €103 million worth of drugs have been seized up to the end of June, and drugs worth more than 33 million have been seized in the last number of days.
A detective from the Garda National Drug and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) said the amount of cocaine being imported into Ireland has been “significantly increasing” in the past five or six years.
Detective Chief Superintendent Seamus Boland said there were almost weekly seizures of regular-looking vehicles in towns across Ireland that have “specialised deep concealments”, some of which have hydraulic entry points, and that these vehicles can be deemed as evidence of someone facilitating organised crime.
He said there had been a significant increase in the wholesale price of cocaine since last October, suggesting that as supply chains become strained because of major seizures by authorities there is an increase in prices.
He said that kilos of cocaine which had been worth more than €25,000 are now in the region of €40,000 and he said actions that force the increase in price was something they were “hoping we can maintain”.
Mr Boland said Ireland had learned “the hard way” a number of years ago that Irish drug gangs are international and they need to work with other countries’ authorities to tackle them.
Revenue Commissioner Ruth Kennedy said that as tactics change to smuggle drugs into Ireland, authorities “need to be agile” to respond.
She said that both cocaine seizures made in recent days were “extremely well hidden” within unaccompanied trailers, while the cannabis was part of a load that had “legitimate” goods on top of it.
She said the use of intelligence, X-ray scanners and detector dogs had helped them find the concealed cocaine.
Mr Boland warned that cocaine “is unique” in the amount of money it generates and how cocaine use or abuse spans across all sections of society, not just vulnerable people.
“The problem is all groups in society are using cocaine – the willingness to use it, the acceptance to use it in people’s comfortable lives, taking absolutely no responsibility for where that money goes, what the outcome is.
“Every penny being paid over for using cocaine, irrespective of how comfortable that environment a person is using it (in), feeds back into the most violent organised crime groups in this jurisdiction and across Europe.”
Both Ms Kennedy and Mr Boland emphasised the positive effect of drugs seizures, meaning that illicit substances would not reach vulnerable communities.
“Making these type of seizures, particularly when a route into the jurisdiction is discovered, that does impact, that disrupts, that, on occasion, can actually dismantle the route into the country and have significant impact on global networks,” Mr Boland said.
