The value of illicit drugs seized by gardaí almost doubled last year from €89 million to €160 million, new figures obtained by The Irish Timesreveal.
The figures reveal a growth in the supply of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin at a time when demand for so-called recreational drugs like cannabis has sharply declined.
Some €25 million of heroin was seized last year compared with cannabis seizures of €15.6 million. This is the first time in the State that heroin seizures have outstripped cannabis.
The heavy supply of heroin into the Republic, mainly from the bumper opium crop in Afghanistan, has continued into the new year.
In three separate seizures over the weekend heroin valued at over €2.2 million was found. They bring to €9.2 million the value of heroin seized in January, almost 40 per cent of total seizures in all of last year.
Cocaine seizures were up to €119 million last year from €13 million in 2006. Last year's figures include a €102 million haul found in Dunlough Bay, Co Cork, which gardaí believe was not destined for the Irish market.
However, even when this seizure is excluded, the remaining €17 million figure is an increase from 2006's €13 million.
Senior Garda sources point out that when the Dunlough Bay seizure is stripped out of the annual figures the total value of drugs found by gardaí last year actually fell to around €60 million.
However, they say the fall is accounted to a drop in cannabis seizures, down from €48 million in 2006 to €15 million last year. "We're seeing much more cocaine and heroin on the streets and obviously that would concern us," said one senior Garda source.
Meanwhile, gardaí were last night continuing to question four men about the seizure of heroin valued at €2 million after searches in Tallaght and Ronansin Dublin, and Leixlip and Monasterevin in Kildare.
The men were arrested at a yard in Tallaght on Friday night as they were unloading the heroin from spare engine parts that had been imported from Belgium. The operation involved the Garda National Drug Unit, Crime and Security, the Garda's drug unit in Tallaght and customs officers.
Cannabis and cocaine, valued at €5,000 was also found. The men, three in their 20s and one in his 30s, are being held at Tallaght Garda station. One of them was recently rescued by gardaí from a house in west Dublin where he had been beaten by an INLA gang as part of an extortion attempt.
An unrelated haul of heroin, valued at €200,000, was found in South Earl Street in Dublin's south inner city on Saturday. There were no arrests. Two men arrested in Clondalkin on Saturday with heroin valued at €60,000 have since been released. A file on the case has been sent to the DPP.