Customs officials at the State's three main airports seized a wide range of illicit goods worth millions of euro from passengers in 2005, including drugs, cigarettes, tobacco, alcohol, weapons, pornographic material and false passports.
Almost 500kg of drugs worth almost €5 million were seized at Dublin airport, along with more than 18 million cigarettes and 370kg of tobacco with a combined value of €5.6 million.
The figures, released yesterday, show there were 181 drugs seizures worth €4.8 million at Dublin airport, including 40kg of cocaine valued at €3.5 million.
Other drugs seized at Dublin airport included herbal cannabis, cannabis resin, heroin, khat, LSD and ecstasy.
At Shannon in 2005, more than 65kg of drugs were discovered concealed in luggage, including 217g of cannabis (less than half the 511g seized in 2004), 200 ecstasy tablets, 1g of cocaine (the same as the previous year) and 1g of heroin.
Almost 15kg of magic mushrooms were also recovered.
Some 793,270 cigarettes were seized last year, up 300,000 on 2004; 30kg of tobacco; and 236 litres of alcohol.
At Cork airport in 2005, Customs seized 1.67kg of cannabis resin; 222.5g of herbal cannabis; 8.15kg of cocaine; 3g of heroin; and 33.5kg of magic mushrooms.
In 2004, however, the Cork haul was much smaller, comprising 23g of cannabis resin and 35g of herbal cannabis.
Customs in Cork also confiscated 1.3 million cigarettes, 21.5kg of tobacco, 17 false passports, 240 CDs, 25 pornographic DVDs and 13kg of meat last year.
A wide variety of weapons was also confiscated at the three airports last year, including 13 knives and a crossbow at Shannon.
At Cork, knuckledusters, metal batons, a pellet gun, machete and stun guns were seized.