A Dublin city drugs gang with links to criminal organisations in the north of England is believed to have been behind the largest heroin haul seized in the State.
Twenty-two kilograms of heroin were found in three vehicles which had disembarked from car ferries in Dublin on Saturday. Six British nationals were arrested, a number of whom are expected to be charged in the coming days.
The haul was almost three times the amount of heroin seized by the Gardai last year. It was the latest in a series of finds by gardai and customs officers, including a £100 million cocaine seizure in Kinsale, Co Cork - the largest such haul in the history of the State - and a £3.5 million heroin seizure near Lusk, Co Dublin, both last month.
The Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU) co-ordinated Saturday's operation with intelligence assistance from police in Manchester, from where the drugs were transported.
Det Supt Austin McNally of the GNDU said he believed the heroin was destined for the Dublin market. "It's quite possible more arrests are imminent," he added.
The operation began at 8.30 a.m. when gardai stopped an Audi car which had just disembarked from a ferry at the North Wall. Some 3 kg of heroin, 48 kg of cannabis resin and 5 kg of amphetamines were found concealed in door panels. A 52-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman were arrested.
Less than six hours later, four other people were arrested - two men, aged 31 and 32, and two women, aged 19 and 31 - disembarking from a car ferry in Dun Laoghaire. Some 10 kg of heroin was found concealed in one of their cars, 9 kg in the other.
Five of the six people are from Manchester, one of them - a woman - from the Isle of Man. They were all arrested under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drugs Trafficking Act, 1996, which allows them to be held for up to seven days.
Half are being questioned at Store Street station the other half at Dun Laoghaire.
The total street value of the heroin is believed to be about £10 million, depending on its purity. The other drugs are valued at about £500,000.
Det Supt Eddie Rock said the haul would have dealt a "serious blow" to the drugs gangs involved.
The seizure, however, raises questions about whether the overall level of heroin on the streets of the capital is rising or falling.
Gardai believe a number of small criminal gangs, previously involved in non-drug-related activity, have recently moved into drug trafficking following the break-up of larger gangs by Garda action.
The fact that the price of heroin remains at its lowest level in years suggests there is no shortage of the drug on the streets. At around £7 a quarter-gram, the drug costs only about one-fifth of what it did five years ago.
