The biggest Garda drugs raid of the year to date has seen 120 members of the force move in and search premises link to Irish and foreign gangs involved in cannabis cultivation.
A total of seven suspects have been arrested; three from Ireland, two from Poland and one apiece from the UK and China.
While the value of drugs seized was small, at just over €100,000, gardaí said the strike was against a number of gangs and was aimed at disrupting their drugs enterprises.
Of the 11 premises raided where cannabis was discovered, gardaí found evidence of manufacturing in nine of those premises, suggesting commercial scale operations where drugs were being harvested, dried and packaged for sale as well as well as plants being cultivated.
Gardaí believe they have dismantled, at least temporarily, the manufacturing capability of a number of prolific criminal factions.
A total of 20 premises were raided in a follow up to Operation Nitrogen, which has been ongoing for a number of years and targets gangs involved in the grow house sector of the drugs underworld.
As well as the cannabis plants seized, gardaí also found a small quantity of cocaine.
The suspects arrested are all being detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act and were being questioned at Clondalkin, Blanchardstown, Donnybrook, Bray and the Bridewell garda stations.
The operation was intelligence-led and targeted against specific suspects, all carried out under the command of Assistant Commissioner John Twomey.
“It’s important even when the finds aren’t huge that we keep at these people, seize the equipment they have to install to grow these crops and undo the work they’ve done to set up the places to grow crops, with lighting and watering systems,” said one Garda source.
Another source said while the sector has been dominated by mainly Vietnamese and to a lesser extent Chinese gangs in recent years, the arrest of three Irish men today was not unusual.
“There are Irish guys working with foreign gangs and there are other Irish criminals who’ve seen gangs come in from outside the country and set up grow houses and make money; so the Irish gangs will try to copy that and they are doing that.”
News of the raid comes as the drugs trade has begun to rally having been hit hard since the economy collapsed in the 2007-2008 period.
The value of illegal drugs seized last year increased to €115.4 million. Total drug seizures topped €100 million annually in the economic boom years, but in 2009 fell to €42 million and was lower again in 2010 at €28 million.
Garda sources said that while any change in the value of drugs seized from year to year did not exactly mirror the growth or contraction in the overall drugs trade, the seizure figures were indicative of developments and that increasing values in seizures suggested an expanding drugs trade.
Like the legal economy, the drugs trade has been depressed because the disposal incomes that fuel recreational drug taking have collapsed.
