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The value of drugs seized at the country’s ports and airports more than doubled in the last two years to over €110m, figures show.
While the estimated street value of hauls can be skewed by one-off huge consignments, the number of seizures conducted by Customs increased by more than 50%.
In its Annual Report 2021, Revenue said that gangs involved in drug importation are using “increasingly inventive and complex smuggling methods and concealment techniques”.
The growth in the illegal drug trade is mirrored in the illegal cigarette trade, with a six-fold jump in the value of loose tobacco seized last year and a 33% rise in the value of illicit cigarettes seized.
- Estimated street value of illegal drugs seized jumped from €44.8m in 2020 to €111.4m;
- Number of drug seizures rose from 15,714 in 2020 to 21,163 in 2021;
- Quantity of drugs seized went up from 4.6 tonnes to 5.7 tonnes
In terms of both quantity and value, the greatest increases were in relation to cocaine and heroin, where the amount seized increased more than seven-fold, from 123kgs to 912kgs. That saw a parallel rise in the estimated street value of those drugs seized, rising from €10.2m to €71.7m.
There were a number of very large seizures in 2021 involving Customs, including the 170kg haul of cocaine in Ringaskiddy, Cork Port, in February.
The consignment had arrived inside legitimate goods shipped from Costa Rica, with an estimated street value of €12m.
That huge haul was surpassed in August when 500kgs of cocaine, worth an estimated €35m, was seized at Dublin Port.
The cocaine was infused in charcoal, part of a recent trend identified by European drug and police agencies as a new sophisticated method to cocaine trafficking.
The cocaine has to be extracted in a laboratory but comes in a “base” form of the drug, which must then be transformed into the retail form of cocaine.
The report also details a record seizure of heroin, when 88kgs of the drug, with an estimated street value of €12.3m, was found in a truck trailer arriving at Rosslare Port.
Revenue was involved in 45 “controlled deliveries” of drugs — where the delivery of drugs is allowed to continue in a bid to arrest those due to collect it; these operations, in conjunction with gardaí, led to 30 arrests.
There were also 11 joint international operations with An Garda Síochána.
“Those involved in the illegal drugs trade use increasingly inventive and complex smuggling methods and concealment techniques,” the report said.
There were more than 60m illicit cigarettes with a value of €43.5m seized in 2021, a 26% increase in the amount seized and a 33% rise in the value of the hauls.
More than 38,000kgs of tobacco, with a value of €24.1m, represents a five-fold rise in the quantity seized and a six-fold increase in value.
Some €806,000 of cash suspected of being the proceeds of, or intended for use in, criminality was also seized.
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