Cocaine, Cannabis, Cash and Cigarettes seized at Dublin Airport
Officers of Revenue's Customs Service at Dublin Airport have in four days seized drugs to the value of €77,000, €37,000 in cash, 330,000 cigarettes and 31Kgs of tobacco.
On Thursday (7/05/2009) Custom's officers intercepted a 20 year-old Romanian male who had arrived from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who was found to have swallowed 34 pellets of cocaine weighing half a kilo valued at €35,000. He appeared in Dublin District Court today and has been remanded in custody.
On Saturday, (9/05/2009) Customs officers intercepted a 27 year-old male Belgian national who had arrived on a flight from Charleroi, Belgium, and discovered 3.5Kgs of herbal cannabis, valued at €42,000 concealed in his baggage. The man was handed over to the Garda Drug Unit in Santry.
On Sunday afternoon (10/05/2009) Customs officers acting in accordance with Section 38, Criminal Justice Act 1994 as amended by Section 20, Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Act 2005, seized €37,000 in cash from a Congolese national as he attempted to leave on a flight to Amsterdam. This afternoon officers applied for and were granted a three-month detention order under the Proceeds of Crime Act by Justice John Dunne in the Dublin District Court, to carry out further investigations.
In a number of operations against cigarette smuggling gangs, Customs officers seized 330,000 cigarettes and 31Kgs of tobacco.The cigarettes were a mixture of brands including L&M and Mayfair and had an approximate street value of €135,300. The tobacco had an approximate street value of €10,000.
Customs officers at Dublin Airport have seized approximately €3 million worth of drugs, €280,000 in cash and 13 million cigarettes to date in 2009.
[Ends 11/05/2009]