THE "controlled delivery" is one of the most valuable weapons in the Garda's armoury. The concept is simple: keep a drug shipment under surveillance, see who collects it, try to catch them.
In practice, such a coup is extremely difficult to achieve. During last year's Urlingford operation, the Garda took the "controlled delivery" concept a stage further. In this instance it was the Garda who imported the drugs in an attempt to trap some of Dublin's biggest drugs barons.
Customs records suggest the Garda was running the operation from the start, rather than merely "intercepting" a shipment.
A Customs dossier, part of which has been seen by The Irish Times, displays what must have been the lowest point in Garda/ Customs co-operation in recent years. It shows that at critical moments, the Customs knew very little of the detail of the Garda operation.
At one point in the operation, Customs officers started to investigate the trawler skipper who landed the £130 million worth of cannabis in the State in November 1995, unaware that he was working for the Garda.
The dossier also shows that as the lorryload of cannabis was being driven by the Garda to Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, for its supposed collection by criminals, Customs officers who wanted to be present when arrests took place were in Athlone, Co Westmeath.
By the time the Customs men were alerted to the right location, it was apparent that the operation had failed in its principal objectives.
No criminals showed up to collect the shipment and there was nothing left for the Garda but to "sell" the haul to the public as a successful interception. When the Customs officers arrived, the RTE cameras had been and gone.
Customs officials concluded the event, was "stage-managed" by gardai.
The Customs and Garda both point out that co-operation has since improved enormously. There have been many successful joint operations since Urlingford, and officers from both agencies work side by side in the new Criminal Assets Bureau.
They suggest the lessons of Urlingford have been learned and that the story of the largest known drug importation in the history of the State should now be left to historians.
HE Urlingford story, from the Customs side, began at the start of October 1995 when it monitored a major drugs trafficker from Finglas, Dublin, moving £300,000 in cash to Amsterdam through Dublin Airport.
Later that month, the Garda asked Customs to monitor the movements of other criminals, including men from Liverpool and an American.
Towards the end of October, a senior member of the Garda Drugs Squad went to the headquarters of the Customs National Drugs Team in Dublin to see if he could borrow a trawler or similar vessel which could import a large quantity of drugs. He suggested 30 tonnes was to be collected from an ocean-going ship some 300 miles out to sea.
The Customs said all they could offer was the Brime - a yacht previously seized from drug traffickers - but this was deemed too small.
The meeting broke up with the suggestion that the Garda would try to get a trawler from British Customs.
Early on the morning of Saturday November 4th, a trawler hired by the gardai and crewed mainly by armed Garda officers made contact with a freighter 300 miles south of Ireland.
The drugs were passed over in an operation which took several hours, with many bales of cannabis being lost overboard. The trawler sailed into Castletownbere, Co Cork, and the drugs were landed under guard at a part of the port called Dinish Island.
The next evening a senior Garda telephoned a Customs official at home to say that the drugs operation discussed the previous month was now under way. A meeting was arranged for Garda Headquarters the next morning, Monday November 6th.
AMONG those present at that high-level meeting were the then Garda Deputy Commissioner and now Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, and the head of the Customs National Drugs Team Mr Liam Hurley.
The Customs men complained that the information given at the October meeting had been sketchy and the Customs had been told nothing about the operation since then. They said there was supposed to be co-operation between the two agencies.
The gardai agreed.
The Customs officials said their officers in Cork had already started an investigation into suspicious trawler activity at Castletownbere could it be the Garda's trawler?
The gardai said it was.
The meeting ended with both sides agreeing on the need lord greater co-operation.
Meanwhile in Castletownbere, Customs officers were interviewing the trawler skipper who had worked for the gardai. His actions had been suspicious from the beginning; he had gone to sea with an unknown crew and had painted out the registration number of his vessel.
It was apparent to anyone who saw the trawler after it came into Castletownbere that something unusual was happening. The skipper told the Customs officers that he had been working for the Garda.
The next morning, Tuesday November 7th, senior gardai and Customs officers met again. This time the Customs men were given more details, such as how the drugs were collected and a name for the "mother ship".
The gardai said the drugs were now stored in a warehouse in Galway, under armed guard, waiting to be moved.
Mr Liam Hurley said there had been little information from the Garda, and the lack of proper communication could have Jeopardised the entire operation.
He said the trawlerman who had been interviewed by Customs officers now faced difficulties - there was local talk in Castletownbere about his activities. He also pointed out that the Customs had the primary role when it came to importation.
The Chief Superintendent from the Garda Drugs Squad, Mr Kevin Carty, said there had been no intention to undermine the Customs, which he said could now have a role in the operation.
There was a further meeting the next morning, Wednesday November 8th, at Garda Headquarters.
A Cork journalist had been inquiring about a shipment of drugs. The gardai were upset at what they thought had been a "leak" to the Cork Examiner (however, the newspaper had not run the story). The Customs men said they had known little about the operation, indicating the "leak" could hardly have come from their side.
Chief Supt Carty said it was time to move the drugs. They were to be taken from the warehouse in Galway and the "hit" would take place at a rendezvous somewhere on the Galway-Dublin road, when the criminals came to collect the lorry container.
He suggested that when the story broke, the media be given the "least information" and be told it was a "joint task force" operation.
The Customs men said they could not agree to that without referring to their superior - one of the Revenue Commissioners.
After the meeting, two Customs officers armed with mobile telephones headed off to Athlone, to be in a central location on the Galway-Dublin road when the "hit" took place. They were in the town at 2.40p.m. when a call from a garda finally came through, telling them the "hit" would take place in 20 minutes.
Where exactly should they go?
They were told there had been a change of plan and the "hit" would be at Urlingford, on the Kilkenny-Tipperary border. That was more than 60 miles from Athlone.
It was clear to the two Customs officers that they had no prospect of getting there in time.
It was not until 4.10 p.m. that the Customs officers arrived at Urlingford. There they saw the lorry container at the side of the road, without its cab, and surrounded by gardai. They were not told that the RTE camera crew and reporter had already been filming at the scene and had now left.
The Customs officers took their first look at the drugs in the container as newspaper photographers began to arrive.
The Customs officers had a brief conversation with the garda in charge, who told them four men had been arrested that morning in Dublin and £250,000 connected to the shipment seized. The Customs officers headed back to Dublin.
By the time they got home, the Urlingford drugs "seizure" was already on the news bulletins.
REFLECTING on the day's events, the Customs concluded that the RTE crew must have had notice earlier that day to be present at Urlingford at the right time, and that the event was "stage managed" by the Garda.
Customs also complained to the Garda that its early request for surveillance on particular criminals was linked to the operation, suggesting the Customs had been used when it suited the Garda only to be left out of the picture later.
There would later be an internal Customs inquiry into whether there was any truth in the suggestion that Customs employees had leaked details of the operation - which concluded that they had not.
The Garda appears to have mounted a campaign of misinformation, designed to disguise the force's central role in importing the drugs.
Urlingford created some political discomfort for the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, and the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen. Both brushed aside concerns that no one had been arrested for importing the drugs, described the event as a great success, and said it was a showcase for improved co-operation between law enforcement agencies.
They did not explain the Garda role in importing the drugs, revealed by The Irish Times the following month. The drugs were later burned in an ESB power station.
Urlingford was successful on several fronts. The criminal gangs with whom the gardai were in contact lost their £250,000, and possibly more. A large amount of cannabis which the gangs might have imported at a later date was destroyed.
Where the Garda was less successful was in the central objective of catching the "drug barons" red-handed - the main dealer targeted still runs a busy criminal enterprise. The Garda also laced criticism for the way the "interception" of the cannabis was portrayed to the media and the wider public.
It is unclear whether the Customs notes on the operation pose any political danger to the authorities. Allegedly "embarrassing" details are not immediately evident, given that the Minister was undoubtedly kept appraised of all aspects of the operation as it progressed.
The naming of the trawlerman in the documents may represent a more grave threat to him. But his name has been known outside law enforcement circles for more than a year - The Irish Times learned his identity shortly after the operation merely by asking questions around the ports of west Cork.
Had it worked, Urlingford might have proved the Garda's greatest success against drug dealers. But it might also have proved troublesome for the authorities.
No court case resulted from the operation, so the most highly-paid legal minds in the State had no opportunity to test the judiciary's reaction to the suggestion that the Garda, as agent provocateur, lured criminals into a situation they would not have otherwise faced.
Last month the Government concluded its six-month EU presidency with an anti-drugs package highlighting the need for greater co-operation among law enforcement agencies. Among the initiatives sponsored by the Irish was a plan for new procedures aimed at improving the "controlled delivery" technique.