Biggest discovery of drugs at Dublin Airport in four years

Gardaí and Revenue’s Customs officers have seized 16kg of cocaine as it was being smuggled into the Republic via Dublin Airport. The seizure is the biggest drugs find at the airport for more than four years and came about after an international operation also involving law enforcement in Germany and South America.

Three men were arrested on the airport campus when the drugs were found on Monday and they are being questioned at Coolock and Blanchardstown Garda stations in Dublin. They were being detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act.

Of the three people arrested, two are employed in roles in the airport while the other person is suspected of flying in to the Republic with the cocaine. It is understand the two airport workers are employed by contractors. In reply to queries, Dublin Airport Authority told The Irish Times none of its employees were involved, adding any other queries should be directed to the Garda.

The Irish end of the operation was conducted by the Dublin-based Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau along with Customs officers. The bureau also found cannabis valued at €6.9 million, in a separate and unrelated operation, on the same day near Ballyhale, Co Kilkenny.

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The latest find of cocaine is unusual at Dublin Airport as it is the first time since June, 2018 that a drugs consignment valued at more than €1 million has been uncovered passing through the airport. In 2018 €1.1 million of heroin was discovered as it was being smuggled through Dublin Airport.

While consignments of drugs and cash related to the drugs trade are regularly seized at Irish airports, including Dublin, the quantities are usually much smaller as international drugs gangs regard commercial airports as high risk for smuggling.

The majority of illicit drugs entering the State come into the Republic by boat, often hidden on low loaders carrying vehicles or concealed in large trucks carrying legitimate cargoes of goods transported by ferry.