The Republic's illegal drugs trade has grown to record proportions this year following an unexpected massive increase in the availability of heroin, The Irish Times has learned.
Provisional Garda seizure figures to the end of last month reveal so-called soft drugs like cannabis and ecstasy are apparently being displaced by heroin and cocaine. Senior gardaí say heroin is now so readily available, even in rural areas, that two of the biggest seizures to date of the drug here in recent months had no impact on its availability or price on the street.
The renewed popularity of heroin has led to fears of an epidemic.
"There was a bumper crop in Afghanistan this year and a lot of if has found its way through Europe to Ireland," said one senior Garda source. "We now see a lot of it, not just in Dublin, but in all the big cities like Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. And we've even seen seizures in places like Tullamore and Killybegs which we wouldn't have seen before."
Some €20 million worth of heroin was seized to the end of October. This is more than three times higher than all of last year, when €6.4 million was seized, and almost four times higher than both 2004 and 2003.
The figure for this year excludes the €6 million shipment of heroin intercepted in Belgium in September as it was about to leave for Ireland on a private jet owned by businessman Jim Mansfield.
It was originally believed the 50kg of drugs found by the Belgian authorities was heroin, which would have valued the haul at €10 million.
However, analysis just completed on all of the packages has revealed only 30kg was heroin, valued at €6 million. The remaining 20kg was cocaine, valued at €1.4 million.
Cocaine worth €14 million has been seized in significant seizures so far this year, compared with €16 million in all of last year. Gardaí believe when the full list of cocaine seizures is available for the full year, last year's figure will be easily surpassed.
While heroin has been growing in popularity fastest, provisional figures for significant seizures of all drug types show the entire trade this year will be bigger than ever when full-year final statistics are available.
Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has said the Garda authorities have told him the drugs trade has grown this year. He believes this is a reflection of the success of Garda operations.
The combined value of significant seizures of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis seized by gardaí in the first 10 months of the year stands at €53 million. However, that figure does not include smaller seizures. When these are added seizures to date are likely to reach €65 million, just €5 million lower than the value seized by the Garda in all of last year.
When seizures from Revenue's customs service, which reached €306 million last year, are added to the Garda total, full-year seizures will far outstrip the €108 million value of last year's record seizures.
It is internationally accepted that the authorities in any country seize an average of 10 per cent of all illicit drugs on the market. That means Ireland's drug trade exceeded €1 billion last year and will increase further this year.
The overall growth has come despite a fall in seizures of cannabis resin from €43.8 million to €17.5 million, provisionally, so far this year.
Just €500,000 worth of ecstasy has been seized compared with a €3.3 million haul in all of last year. However, the harder drugs market has more than made up for this fall-off.