NO ARRESTS HAVE yet been made in connection with the cannabis seizure made by gardaí yesterday – estimated to be worth €37.5 million.
The 1,800 kilos seizure was made at Dublin Port yesterday because of collaboration efforts between Revenue officers and An Garda Síochána, and gardaí said today that there was an “international context” to the investigation.
“I don’t think any one is in any doubt that organised crime in Ireland and international level have a significant capacity, and the task for all of us is to match that with expertise and combine expertise of the state agencies to achieve this result,” Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll told reporters at a press conference today.
Liam Irwin from the Revenue Commissioners put the size of this seizure into context:
What we have here today is more than the entire cannabis seizures for 2015 and 2016.
“Once they’ve gone for analysis of quality and content, they’ll be stored at a secure location, they may be required as evidence depending on how investigations proceed, and they’re securely destroyed.”
As of yet there have been no arrests. “That’s not something you’d expect at this stage – it just arrived in a container there was nobody accompanying it,” says Irwin.
“There’s a significant international context to this, so we’re not in a position to comment on that,” said O’Driscoll when asked if the shipment arrived from a European Union port.
“It was concealed in tractor parts – quite a sophisticated concealment. That’s part of the work that needs to be done in finding out what it was and where it was,” said Irwin in response to a question from TheJournal.ie.
Something like 10,000 containers arrive a week so it really was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Yesterday, Tánaiste and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald praised the work of Revenue and gardaí: “Week in, week out, the gardaí and customs work very closely in trying to prevent the importation of illicit drugs into the country and they have many successes.
“This seizure in particular, demonstrates their determination and resourcefulness in going after the activities of drugs gangs who seek to profit from causing such misery in communities through their deadly trade.”
With reporting from Christina Finn.
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