GARDAÍ BELIEVE they have significantly disrupted the activities of an international crime gang using women to courier cocaine from South America and the Caribbean to the UK via Ireland.
The Garda National Drugs Unit became aware just before Christmas that the gang’s couriers were entering the Republic on flights from France and staying briefly in Dublin before the cocaine they were carrying was shipped on to the UK.
Two women, who gardaí believe were acting as couriers for the gang, have been arrested in Dublin after cocaine valued at just over €1 million was seized from their luggage. The arrests followed a lengthy surveillance operation led by the Garda drugs unit but also involved officers from Revenue’s Customs service.
The women arrested are a mother and daughter from the Caribbean island of St Lucia. At least one was expected to appear before the courts this morning to face charges over the drug find.
Gardaí and Customs officers came into criminal intelligence that suggested the women were carrying about 14kg of cocaine, valued at €1 million.
The women flew from the Caribbean to France and from there to Dublin on separate flights. They were kept under surveillance by Customs officers and gardaí from the time they landed in Dublin.
The women were allowed collect their luggage from the baggage hall of the airport. When the luggage of one of the women was checked, Customs officers found 9kg of cocaine. The other woman had arrived in Dublin from France earlier and had been kept under Garda surveillance as she made her way from the airport to a north Dublin hotel.
Gardaí moved in and searched the women’s luggage at the hotel on Thursday evening. The search yielded parcels of cocaine totalling 5kg concealed in one of her bags.
The women – aged 45 and 23 – were arrested and are being detained at Finglas Garda station.
Garda sources said while the official value was put at €1 million, the haul would most likely fetch considerably more on the streets.
“We would have to think that because the drugs came from St Lucia and it is close to Colombia, the cocaine is likely to be very pure,” said one source. “When it was mixed with bulking agents, you would end up with a much larger weight of drugs that would be valued at up to €3 million.”
Gardaí believe criminals based in the Caribbean had conspired with a gang in the UK to use Ireland and France as transit countries. They believe the route had been used before and that couriers were from poor backgrounds and lured into carrying the drugs for modest payments. It was not clear last night when or how the drugs were to be shipped to their final UK destination.
