The value of illicit drugs seized in the State in 2004 is set to exceed €100 million for the second year in succession, new figures obtained by The Irish Times reveal.
The biggest development of the year was the continued increase in the use of cocaine. Around 270 kilograms, or €19 million of the drug has been seized by the gardaí and customs and excise according to provisional figures for the year.
This marks a very considerable increase on the 114 kilogram,s or €8 million of the drug seized last year. In 2000 just 32 kilograms, or €2.3 million, worth of the drug was seized here.
The cocaine trade is now as big in Ireland as the entire illicit drugs trade was just five years ago.
Provisional figures obtained from Garda sources show seizures of the five main illicit drug types - heroin, cannabis resin, cocaine, Ecstasy and amphetamine - reached around €60 million in 2004.
However, many seizures below 1 kilogram are not contained in the provisional year-end Garda figures. The street value of many big seizures will also rise in coming months as test results assessing the purity of the hauls become available.
Similarly, while Revenue said its Custom and Excise service had seized drugs valued at around €13 million during the year, this is likely to rise as a full set of figures becomes available early next year.
Gardaí seized cocaine with an estimated street value of €15.5 million, with Revenue seizing €3.5 million of the drug.
Seizures of cannabis resin in the year declined but were still high. Gardaí seized some €24.5 million of the drug, down from €38 million in 2003, with Revenue intercepting €7 million worth of the drug.
Garda heroin seizures have been provisionally valued at €6 million, up from around €4.5 million last year. Revenue has seized just €13,200 worth of the drug since the beginning of the year. There were approximately one million ecstasy tablets seized in 2004, valued at €10 million. This is broadly in line with last year.
The trade in amphetamines remained relatively small, with gardaí seizing just €1.3 million of the drug in the past year.
The spread nationwide of the illicit drugs is clear from the locations of many big seizures. While most successes for the Garda National Drugs Unit came in Dublin there were also major seizures in the regions in counties such as Kildare, Louth, Wexford, Limerick, Tipperary, Cork and Laois.
The increase in cocaine has come as drug dealers have flooded the market here with the drug in recent years. Since the establishment of methadone treatment programme in the late 1990s, under which 7,000 heroin users are treated, drugs gangs have seen a decrease in the demand for heroin.
They have opted to deal in cocaine which is sold both as a recreational drug and to intravenous drug users. Those injecting the drug do not get a several hours high from cocaine, as is the case with heroin.
Because of this they need to inject cocaine more often, making it a much more lucrative drug for dealers.
Combined with this, cocaine has become more popular as a recreational drug in the last four or five years as ecstasy has become less fashionable because of a marked reduction in quality of the drug being offered for sale in the Republic.
