PEOPLE who have been working as Garda informers or who have assisted their operations are named in the confidential Customs dossier which went missing last month.
The dossier, parts of which have been seen by The Irish Times, names members of the public who have helped gardai, including one who played a key role in the Urlingford drugs operation.
The documents also detail other operations, including an importation of drugs at Dublin Airport, where the smuggler claimed to be working for gardai.
Senior Garda officers believe the documents, stolen from Customs, are now in criminal hands and could be used to embarrass the authorities and endanger those who assisted them.
The theft of the records, reported in last week's Irish Times, represents a grave embarrassment to both Customs and the Garda, who assure members of the public who assist them in their Inquiries that confidentiality will be protected.
The sections seen by The Irish Times contain the Customs notes on the Urlingford operation, and indicate that the Garda kept most details of the operation secret from the Customs despite public assertions of improved co-operation between the two agencies.
The notes show that gardai were looking for a trawler to use in the operation in the weeks before the £130 million worth of cannabis was imported late last year.
As the gardai brought the drugs to Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, two Customs officers who wanted to be present as the operation concluded were left at Athlone, some 60 miles away.
By the time they arrived at the scene an RTE camera crew had already left. Customs thought the Garda "stage-managed" the operation.
A team of senior gardai is now investigating the theft of the documents. They believe criminals will endeavour to use them to "smear" the authorities by suggesting complicity between Garda officers and drug-traffickers.