It’s in the mail: peculiar and illegal objects regularly intercepted in foreign parcels
ANIMALS SKINS, knives and a submachine gun are just some of the peculiar and illegal items found this year by the Revenue Commissioners’ team whose job it is to examine international post coming into Ireland.
Last week, a smell coming from a parcel at Drogheda post office led to it being opened – and officers found two dead monkeys and 14 monkey legs packed alongside decomposing fish.
“Anything goes, and that’s the truth of it,” says Paddy Lonergan, who is general manager and oversees all Customs operations at An Post’s international mail sorting depot in Portlaoise.
In the last year his team has recovered stun guns disguised as mobile phones, a large machete and even the skin of an African lynx.
Christmas week is one of the busiest for both Customs and An Post staff.
This year, counterfeit “ghd”brand hair straighteners are some of the most popular items being detected. “They are all over the place, and we have also seen an increase in counterfeit clothes such as Adidas [items],” he added.
By the end of the year Revenue will have checked and imposed customs charges on more than 52,000 parcels netting the exchequer more than €2 million in fines.
People try to avoid VAT and other taxes by ordering items online, and collection of money due to the State is the main work of Customs, whose officers have also been involved in foiling many attempts to bring drugs in through the post – and guns.
A specially trained sniffer dog and sophisticated X-ray machines are also part of the resources put into stopping serious criminal activity through the postal system.
“Just a few days ago we found cannabis concealed inside speakers that looked part of a stereo system. There were also ceramic ornaments filled with the drug. The main drugs we recover are heroin, cocaine and cannabis.”
Unlike major ports such as Rosslare and Dublin, where huge shipments of drugs are found, the seizures are mainly “small, but constant”. Last month a parcel turned out to contain 30 stun guns disguised to look like mobile phones. When the house the parcel was delivered to in Louth was searched, a pipe-bomb and imitations guns were also found.
The packages that attract most attention are those posted from China and the Middle East, where there is a booming black market in counterfeit products, including medicines.
It is 10 years since Viagra was launched, and it is still one of the most popular drugs to be counterfeited and sold over the internet. “Viagra and slimming products are very popular and have increased in popularity in the last five years. Diazepam and Valium are also seized on a constant basis,” adds Lonergan.
Animal skins are rare to find, but an African lynx skin was indeed intercepted this year.
“We never know what we will find and that’s the truth of it,” he concludes.