Dutch Justice Ministry officials and police chiefs were urged yesterday to clamp down on fugitive Irish drugs criminals based in the Netherlands.
A delegation from the all-party Oireachtas committee investigating the European drugs trade met Dutch Justice Minister Mr Benk Korthals and told him Irish drugs traffickers were operating with impunity in the Netherlands and must be put out of business.
They also held talks in Amsterdam with police heads responsible for combating drugs and money laundering. The Oireachtas members told police a crackdown on Ireland's Dutch-based drugs gangs was long overdue.
A member of the delegation and long-time anti-drugs campaigner, Dublin Indepen dent TD Mr Tony Gregory said: "We told the Dutch Justice Minister fairly and squarely that most of the Irish drugs traffickers who have come to Holland have not been touched."
"The big-time drugs trafficker John Cunningham and his gang who were jailed earlier this year for smuggling huge quantities of cannabis and ecstasy were an exception," he added.
The Irish delegation, which included Senator Maurice Manning and TDs Bernard Durkan, Dan Kiely and Pat Carey, named several Irish drugs traffickers known to be hiding in the Netherlands.
"The message we put across to Justice Ministry officials and police chiefs was the unacceptability of fugitive Irish drugs barons being able to continue their activities in Holland," said Mr Gregory.
The delegation was told strict Dutch legal guidelines made it extremely difficult to make arrests on a suspicion. "It appears that even when the gardai notify their counterparts in Holland that a particular drugs dealer has set up business over here, nothing further comes of it," he said.
However, the delegation received assurances that Dutch police, who are al lowed to use telephone taps far more frequently than their Irish counterparts, would step up that form of surveillance on suspected Irish drugs networks.
They were also assured of a policy of major co-operation between the Dutch and Irish authorities. Good contacts established between the two forces would be strengthened, they were told, in an effort to clamp down on major drugs trafficking between both countries.