AN ILLEGAL trade in smuggling synthetic drugs into the Republic through the postal service has emerged and grown exponentially since the products were banned under laws that closed head shops.
Factories in China have been identified as the chief supplier to the Irish market, with most of the consignments seized in the Republic having been bought online and sent to the purchasers via the standard postal service or private courier services.
Some of those using the postal service are ordering the head shop-style drugs, which were banned in mid-2010, for delivery to empty residential or commercial properties they have access to. Others are having the drugs delivered to apartments with mail boxes in communal areas. Boxes for vacant apartments can be easily accessed and cannot be connected to the purchaser.
Most of those sourcing the drugs appear to be individuals seeking products for personal use.
However, informed sources have told The Irish Times that organised crime gangs are now moving into this newest, and lucrative, corner of the illegal drugs trade with at least one interception this year valued at more than €800,000.
Last month Michael Coleman (22) and Liam Coffey (22) died in Kinsale, Co Cork, after taking a synthetic drug mix containing both ecstasy (or MDMA) and PMMA.
The Health Research Board has warned of an increase in deaths this year related to synthetic drug use, though precise figures are not yet available.
In 2011, the first full year in which synthetic drugs and the head shops that sold them were banned, Revenue’s Customs Service seized 101 parcels containing the drugs.
In the first nine months of 2012, that figure had jumped to 697 cases.
Those familiar with the problem say the frequency of seizures is increasing and that the 2012 annual total is expected to exceed 1,000. That would represent a tenfold increase in one year.
Customs and Garda sources told The Irish Times that since the closure of head shops in 2010, some drugs gangs have been successfully exploiting the fact that there remains demand for the substances and that the drugs are readily available from foreign websites.
“Drug dealers can buy this stuff online and if they get it into the country they can sell it for a multiple of what they paid for it,” said one source. “Because it’s now illegal people who are buying it seem to have accepted that it’s going to be more expensive. And for the drug dealers it is much easier to source than something like heroin or cocaine, which obviously you can’t buy on a website.”
