A major illegal trade in veterinary medicines between the Republic and Britain has been broken up by the special investigations unit (SIU) of the Department of Agriculture.
This week, the first of what could be hundreds of prosecutions in Britain took place at a Wiltshire court where a dairy farmer was fined £1,500 and ordered to pay costs of £2,600 for the illegal use of drugs on animals.
During the hearing, where the farmer pleaded guilty to breaching veterinary medicines laws, prosecutors revealed the existence of a joint operation with officials from the Department of Agriculture in Dublin.
The Department of Agriculture press office confirmed that its investigation team had been at the centre of the investigation of the illegal trade in drugs - drugs which can only be used with veterinary approval between here and Britain.
"The SIU raided a veterinary premises in the State two years ago and found a list of names in Britain, which it supplied to the authorities there," a spokesman said. There were "hundreds" of names on the list and these people were now being prosecuted in the British courts.
Industry sources said last night that a strong export trade had grown up between the two islands based on the strength of sterling and the availability of the medicines here.
Sources said veterinary medicine controls in Britain were not as strict as they were in the Republic. It is an offence to use veterinary medicines in Britain which have not been assessed by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
While no veterinary medicines were found on the dairy farm where the offences occurred in November 2003, documents found there had shown that illegal medicines had been administered to animals on the farm near Warminster.
"I understand that the SIU found documentation showing an illegal trade in a number of premises in the State, not just one," a source said.
"The strength of sterling has also led to a strong cross-Border trade in animal drugs and some of these end up in Britain."