REVENUE Commissioners and Customs officials have failed to stop the drug trade and the Garda and Naval Service do not have the resources to do so. The solution is the formation of a single Government task force, or Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), according to the State Solicitor Mr Barry Galvin.
Mr Galvin was highly critical of the official response to the drugs problem. He said that after a major seizure of cannabis in 1983 Customs got information "that disproportionately large quantities of drugs were being imported into Ireland. I am aware that information was channelled up through official channels and then it stopped. I know where it stopped."
He said those who "failed to act on those reports in the 1980s bear an enormous responsibility for what happened with drugs here."
Mr Galvin said the Revenue Commissioners had not only "failed to address ill gotten gains, they've openly refused to do so. They are still refusing to get involved, keeping the emphasis on lawyers, business people and little old ladies in sweet shops."
The Naval Service was overstretched with fishery protection duties and the Garda was still not properly resourced, he said.
In his script for the three day conference Mr Galvin recommended that a single drugs agency should consist of appropriate personnel, "not necessarily the most senior, but the most talented and well motivated from the various bodies, that is to say, Garda or Navy, Customs and legal".
A single director reporting to a government minister would head the agency, he suggested. "He or she would operate with maximum efficiency," he said to ensure that drug interdiction would have total priority. Intelligence gathered by the Naval Service, gardai and Customs would be shared and available strictly to DEA officers.
Mr Galvin's audience of mainly American and continental lawyers were highly amused with the tale of the "Keystone Customs" sailing out to search a yacht off a West Cork harbour some years ago. A boat they borrowed sprang a leak and they had to be rescued by the suspected smuggler.
"The reaction from the Customs higher authorities was not, as you might expect, to immediately provide a number of sale; suitable craft to enable the Customs officers to carry out their duties," he said.
Instead "a directive was issued that, in future, officers were not to borrow boats to inspect visiting yachts and, secondly, there was an internal investigation to try and find out those who had leaked this interesting information to the authorities."