A bearskin by post, tusks in freight, snake oil in carry-on luggage: Some of what is seized by customs

In the past year, enforcement teams have made 18,419 seizures. And while the contraband includes the usual suspects of drugs, cigarettes, tobacco and alcohol, there is also illicit mineral oils, vehicles, cash, and counterfeit goods. 

People are used to reading headlines about drug seizures at the airport — €203m so far this year — including cannabis and cocaine. But head of customs Michael Gilligan, who has marked 50 years in the unit, said staff also see the illegal importation of exotic animal skins, or as he puts it, they are seizing “all sorts every day”.

The Irish Examiner was shown a room full of items seized by Revenue recently, while officers detailed how they are working with agencies across the world in a continuous effort to crack down on contraband.

Spread out across a large wooden table were dozens of items ranging from a samurai sword, to walking sticks concealing a sword, as well as hand knives, coral shells, a large bear’s head and full coat, and the head of an almost-extinct snow leopard.

Such discoveries, deeply distressing to animal lovers and conservationists all over the world, are making their way into Ireland via freight containers, postal packages and carry-on suitcases.

“The bear skin came in through the post” said Mr Gilligan. “It is a full bear, and it came from Russia, also we have a wolf skin, and it came from Malaysia.

“The market internationally for bear skins and animals is certainly there” he said, but acknowledges: “In Ireland people have become more aware of what these items actually represent.

At one stage they were just ornaments, people now realise, these are in fact endangered species, whether you’re talking about species of fauna or indeed species of flora.

“At one stage, things like coral were a gift you would bring home, you don’t do that anymore, lots of people realise that’s a living organism.

“People now understand you can’t just take these things out of the environment where it's living or in fact something like the tusk, which has come from an animal”. 

However, despite growing awareness and education, tusks continue to be detected.

“We also have a range of tusks which have come from sealions and most of these tusks are engraved in some way. In general, they tell the story of the people who have caught the animal.

Sculptures have been carved out in some of the tusks, while others have delicately hand-painted.

“There is a beauty in the art if you are to forget about where it came from” said Mr Gilligan, “But you can’t forget about where it came from.”

Ireland is signed up to the CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The aim of the convention is to regulate and monitor the international trade in certain species of animals and plants, and to ensure trade does not threaten their survival in the wild.

“Once we have gone to the wildlife service or zoo to get confirmation of what it is, and if it is permitted under the convention or if a court case isn’t complete, we would probably give it to the zoo or wildlife service or hold as evidence” said Mr Gilligan.

Drug seizures

Drugs also represent a major ongoing battle for Revenue and gardaí as well as international agencies.

Recent figures from Revenue show 9,541 drug seizures in 2024 — compared with 8,907 in 2023.

The quantity of drugs seized up until November this year was 53,192kg, worth €203.6m — this compares to 7,952kg of drugs worth €259.3m seized in 2023.

There were also 4,610 seizures of 111 million illegal cigarettes worth €95.2m this year compared, with 4,795 seizures of 68 million illegal cigarettes last year, worth €54.5m.

“We would never been surprised by the concealment of drugs or cigarettes” said Mr Gilligan. “Drugs can be hidden anywhere, and nothing is as it seems.

“Up to September, we had seized €40m worth of drugs in Dublin airport alone.

Cannabis is the main drug being brought into Ireland, followed by cocaine. And officers suspect cocaine is being smuggled into Ireland for sale and supply in Australia.

“A kilo of cocaine in Ireland has a street value of roughly €70,000, but a kilo in Australia is worth €210,000 or €220,0000” he said.

“So, there is a view that we could be supplying markets as far away as Australia — probably coming from South America through Africa up through Europe, into Ireland and then outward.

One of the major seizures undertaken by Revenue recently involved cocaine and cannabis worth €3m, which was detected by officers in Dublin Airport in September.

 “With cannabis, it’s not deeply concealed either, you could have someone walking with it in their rucksack.

“People are also carrying cash in and out and cash has to be dealt with separately — you’re not detaining the person, you’re dealing with the product.

“None of it makes sense when it gets to court, if you cannot show the origins of the cash. We had a very significant seizure involving €1.8m cash last year and you have to show where it came from.”

Through multiagency work, Revenue and gardaí often hope for the potential identification of someone higher up in the drugs trade, when they discover illegal substances.

The joint task force includes Revenue, Customs, gardaí, and the navy — if it is a maritime issue.

“They are detected through intelligence, our highly trained detector dogs, scanners, machines and officials,” Mr Gilligan said

To keep track of the global illegal drugs trade, Revenue has officers and gardaí based in MAOC (N) — Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (Narcotics) — in Portugal.

It examines the movement of drugs across the Atlantic and Mediterranean maritime and aerial domains.

It is an initiative by eight EU member states (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal) and the UK, and provides a forum for multi-lateral cooperation, to tackle illicit drug trafficking by sea and air.

“Revenue and gardaí have officers in MAOC” said Mr Gilligan “They are watching the movement of drugs.

“You have movement from South America to West Africa up through there into Ireland and the rest of Europe.

“The focus from all the countries involved is to develop intelligence and throw it into an international pot, whoever has an asset — whether a ship or plane — nearest the point at which we are seeing the product coming across, is for that agency to act.

“Probably 67% of cases, where the intelligence might have come from Ireland, the drugs are not taken out by Irish assets, the drugs are taken out by the French, or Spanish or the UK authorities.

“That, in a way, is an indication of how successful that agency is, otherwise those agencies would be dealing with it by themselves, and they wouldn’t be able to get an aircraft or ship down to that point.

But despite the growing demand for cocaine across the world, Mr Gilligan said cannabis remains the most seized drug found by Revenue officers on passengers or in freights.

“Cannabis is the main drug we see” he said. “People are carrying them in their bags; they may not look comfortable with it but it’s usually not a deep concealment.

But cocaine is everywhere. Kids don’t go out drinking the way they did years ago, they are doing coke, and it’s also associated with how they look.

“There are so many young men who are in the gym, and they are very careful about how they look so they are not going to go out and ruin that by drinking”.

Mr Gilligan said while there was a major concern over the arrival of the deadly drug fentanyl into Ireland, there has been no evidence of the drug here so far.

“Three or four years ago, there was an expectation that all of Europe was going to be hit with it, the same way as you have in the States” he said.

“We are aware of it; we are aware of what other agencies are coming across. There is no customs agency that works by itself, they work with other agencies, either one on one or through the likes of Europol who has its finger on the pulse of what is happening in Europe.

“This allows us to identify immediately when something happens somewhere, when customs in another administration identify a concealment, we are aware of it.

In terms of fentanyl we haven’t seen what we thought we might have been hit with a number of years ago and we certainly haven’t seen what is happening in the US.

The trafficking of drugs by vulnerable people is also a growing problem — some of whom are young vulnerable African mothers being used to bring drugs into Ireland for crime gangs.

“The really sad stories are the younger girls coming in from South Africa that might be carrying a product and have children at home and live in a township and are told they can be set up here if they do this,” he said.

“They are coming through Charles de Gaulle airport and ending up in a prison in the country that they don’t know leaving their children behind in Africa.

“That is the sad part — they are just being absolutely used; lots of vulnerable people are being used. It would pull at the heartstrings especially when you know young kids are involved and they are caught with drugs while their child is 4,000 miles away. The people who dupe these women are master manipulators," Mr Gilligan said.

Mr Gilligan said the gangs are extremely intelligent and thus they must continuously work on new ways to intercept the illegal activities.

“We are continually adapting to the very dynamic environment which covers the movement of drugs, prohibited items seen here and redeploying our assets of all kinds, to basically counteract those involved in serious organised crime. It is impacting on society in general and that is our main issue.”