THE STRENGTH of the Republic's heroin trade has been underlined by a new Garda-PSNI cross-Border organised crime assessment which reveals 530 times more heroin was seized in the Republic last year compared with Northern Ireland.
The assessment also reveals cocaine users in the Republic are being sold the drug with average purity levels of just 10 per cent.
The report from both police forces expresses concern at a variety of cross-Border crime types including drug smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering and fuel and cigarette smuggling.
The report notes than some crime types, such as smuggling or counterfeit goods, which are regarded by many as less serious, are funding the more serious elements of organised crime such as drug dealing.
In a joint statement, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde said while the threat posed by cross-Border organised crime was considerable, it was "not insurmountable". Both Mr Murphy and Sir Hugh stress the importance of co-operation between all agencies of both states.
The report reveals the extent of guns, drugs and cash seized in Dublin, Belfast and Amsterdam during one operation last September when firearms were imported from the Netherlands.
In the Republic gardaí seized 27 firearms, six silencers, assorted magazines and speed loaders, 5kg of herbal cannabis and heroin worth €4.1 million. Fourteen firearms, ammunition and €402,000 were seized in Belfast. Some 192 firearms, ammunition, silencers, laser pointers, hand grenades and €15,000 were seized in Amsterdam.
Cocaine seized in the North in the six months to last March was found to have a purity level of 16 per cent. In the South the drug is being offered for sale at purity levels averaging 10 per cent.
The drug is generally "bulked up" for sale with glucose, which enables drug gangs to turn one kilo of pure cocaine into eight or nine kilos of diluted cocaine.
The report concludes that the Border has no impact on the activities of drug gangs. But it says money laundering remains a problem, with 25 cash seizures totalling €2.4 million in the Republic to the end of August.
While organised crime gangs were still engaged in fuel laundering, the situation in the North is much worse. In 2007, 840,000 litres of fuel were seized and 18 laundering plants detected. In the Republic one laundering plant was detected and 43,000 litres seized.