Wholesale price of cocaine increasing due to large-scale drug seizures
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There has been a significant increase in the wholesale price of cocaine being imported into the country for the first time, a senior garda has said.
It comes after €33m worth of cocaine and cannabis was discovered concealed in containers at three ports along the east coast in the past week.
Garda National Drug and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) detective chief superintendent Séamus Boland said on Wednesday that cocaine is now the second most abused drug across Europe behind cannabis and was in demand.
“We have seen a significant increase in the wholesale price of cocaine being imported into this jurisdiction,” he said.
He said that kilos of cocaine which had been worth more than €25,000 are now in the region of €40,000.
“We would hope, and we would see that these seizures, over the last week as well, will make this more difficult.”
He described how locating routes into Ireland for the sale and supply of illegal drugs can “disrupt” the global market.
“Cocaine is the second most abused drug at the moment, cannabis being the first. Cocaine is unique in the volume of money that it generates.
“The problem is all groups in society are using cocaine – the willingness to use it, the acceptance to use it in people’s comfortable lives, taking absolutely no responsibility for where that money goes, what the outcome is.
Revenue and gardaí have seized more than €103m worth of drugs from January 2023 to June this year.
Superintendent Boland was accompanied by Revenue Commissioner Ruth Kennedy whose unit was also involved in the three major seizures, which were a result of “weeks and months” of collaboration.
In the past week, gardaí have seized cocaine worth €7.2m in Co Wexford, while Revenue officers assisted by gardaí seized cannabis with an estimated value of over €16m at the port on Saturday.
In a third incident, more than €10m of cocaine was seized at Dublin Port on Tuesday.
Ms Kennedy described how the cocaine discovered in Dublin was “extremely well hidden in an unaccompanied freight.”
The cannabis seizure was part of a load hidden underneath legitimate goods.
She said sharing information with gardaí and other ports to help prevent drug gangs “attempting to exploit our ports and entry into the state” was working.