Dublin Airport: Almost €45m worth of drugs seized in August

Some €45m worth of drugs have been seized at Dublin Airport in the last month.

It brings the total value of drugs seized by Revenue up to August 31st to nearly €170m and is a significant increase from the €75m seized in the same period last year.

Revenue officers have seized over €3m worth of cocaine and herbal cannabis at the airport in recent days.

Between Wednesday last week and Sunday there were seven incidents uncovered of drugs being imported by people getting off flights with eight arrests by Gardaí.

Some 258 cocaine pellets and 140 kilograms of cannabis were seized.

Revenue detector dogs Jack and Maggie at Dublin Airport, 13-9-24. Image: Bella Finn/Newstalk

Head of Customs in Revenue’s Dublin Airport Branch Michael Gilligan said it’s a big percentage of seizures.

“I think we’ve had 800 individual seizures overall in Dublin Airport this year and about 80 of those have been in August,” he said.

“Generally speaking, on average, you’re talking about an individual concealing internally up to 100 pellets.

“That obviously all has to come out and I don’t why somebody wants to sniff it but it’s a very serious problem.

“We’re not only just interested in the drugs – once we interact with a passenger and there’s an indication that there is drugs onboard then we have to be very careful about the health and safety of that individual.

“That’s paramount to us”.

‘100% conviction rate’

Garda Superintendent Darren McCarthy said the people concerned are usually hospitalised after being arrested.

“These vulnerable people can spend anything period of time – up to seven days – in hospital before they’re returned to An Garda Síochána.

“They’re processed and an investigation… takes place in relation to their particular investigation.

“What we have found is that these vulnerable receive a custodial sentence of anything from approximately six to eight years.

“Since 2022 there’s a 100% conviction rate in relation to these persons appearing before the courts”.

He added that such operations are “dismantling and disrupting” drug trafficking networks.

Main image: Some of the drugs seized at Dublin Airport. Image: Revenue