Huge drug hauls fuel rising wholesale cocaine prices, police believe

Approximately 150 kilos of suspected cocaine with an estimated value of €10.5 million was seized yesterday at Dublin Port as part of a joint operation between the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) and the Revenue Customs Service.

This followed two major drug seizures at Rosslare Europort.

On Thursday, tax officials seized approximately 104 kilos of cocaine, with an estimated value of €7.2 million. On Saturday, the agents assisted tax officials in seizing approximately 783 kilos of herbal cannabis and 70 kilos of cannabis resin, with an estimated value of approximately €16 million.

“One of the issues we have seen in this jurisdiction, and particularly since the end of last year, is that there has actually been a significant increase in the wholesale price of cocaine being imported into this jurisdiction,” Detective Chief Séamus Boland, of the Garda National Drug and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB), told a press conference today.

“When you’re dealing with a sector like the illicit cocaine industry, you’re dealing with a market where supply and demand are in sync. The basic economics of that is that if supplies are tight or if it’s hard to get product at a certain time, you’re normally going to see a price increase.

“This is something we have experienced for the first time here in Ireland at a wholesale level.

“Doing these types of seizures does have an impact, particularly when a route into the jurisdiction is discovered that has an impact, that disrupts, and sometimes can dismantle a route into the country and have a significant impact on the global networks involved. So it is positive when these types of seizures occur.

“We have seen an increase in the region of as much as a third in the wholesale price of cocaine imported into Ireland since the end of October last year, when there may have been kilos of cocaine available to the value of €25,000 or more.

“We’ve seen them reach prices of around €40,000. Sometimes it’s even more than a third. Hopefully we can keep that up.”

Commissioner for Revenue Ruth Kennedy explained that drug cartels go to extraordinary lengths to conceal drugs in their shipments.

“The cocaine seizures we made in Rosslare Europort and in Dublin were both deeply concealed and extremely well hidden,” she said.

“There was a lot of work done on how they were hidden in the unaccompanied cargo. And it took our officers, along with our dogs, who are an absolutely tremendous resource for us, and X-ray scanners, to find that.”

Ms Kennedy explained that the cocaine found last week was within the physical infrastructure of the trailer and not concealed in any goods inside it.

Chief Inspector Boland said deep concealment at border crossings, such as those found in the recent seizures, is nothing new.

“Nothing surprising to us. This is a trend that is happening worldwide. We are seizing almost every week ordinary vehicles that are driving around Dublin, driving around any city in the country, that have specialised deep concealments, some of which are very difficult to access and all of which are being used for concealment,” he said.

“The only reason anyone would ever be in possession of a concealment like that in a vehicle is to facilitate organized crime. And we are pursuing all of those groups.”

Both he and Ms Kennedy said close co-operation and intelligence sharing between An Garda Síochána and Revenue, as well as working with colleagues internationally, were vital in disrupting drug imports.

“This continues to yield important results as we focus on identified high-value targets, particularly those involved in logistics and those attempting to exploit our gateways into the state,” he said.

“We believe it is very important that we take action against people who seek to exploit Ireland by importing cocaine and highly dangerous drugs into this jurisdiction and into Europe.

“And the results and seizures that have been made in recent times, not just this weekend but over the last 12 months, indicate where Ireland is in this challenge, and we will continue to conduct these investigations.

“We would be happy if, when the need arises, such as with three major imports like this, we have the resources to deploy them.

“If there were three more, we have the resources to deploy them as well. And what you see, what’s made public, and the fact that we’ve had three physical seizures of drugs in the past week, those are just the physical actions that are made public.

“There are many investigations that are ongoing, so the scale is not a challenge for us and we will always push back against it.”

Detective Chief Inspector Boland added: “Every penny paid for the use of cocaine, regardless of how comfortable the environment in which someone uses it, fuels the most violent organised crime groups in this jurisdiction and across Europe, and that in itself leads to murderous feuds.

“Thankfully, in Ireland we currently have the lowest number of organised crime related murders in my 35 years with An Garda Síochána and that is down to the results of investigations and, again, targeting the right people.

“But that is not the case across Europe and other European jurisdictions, including Sweden, where there has been a significant increase in organised crime-related murders. They are all based on organised crime, they are all based on cocaine trafficking and the violence that comes with it.

“So everybody, regardless of the environment you’re in, and especially those who are living a comfortable life and a comfortable environment, that’s where your money is going. That’s what feeds your money.”