Major drug arrest ‘won’t dent supply’

GARDAÍ yesterday hailed the arrest of a major Irish cocaine trafficker in Spain but fear it won’t have any significant impact on the supply of the drug to the Irish market.

Drug officers said the Irishman arrested by police in the popular resort of Alicante was a major supplier of cocaine to Irish dealers for a number of years.

“This is significant in terms of who we’ve caught. It was a good arrest,” said one garda source. “He was a significant enough player. A lot of recent seizures would have been down to him.”

The Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU), which assisted Spanish police in the operation, has been targeting the trafficker for some time.

Spanish police swooped on the 40-year-old Dubliner in a car park in Alicante last Friday, along with a man from Birmingham, 44, who has Irish connections.

Two other people, a Venezuela national and a Hungarian, were arrested in the same operation.

Three of the four were arrested in the Holiday Inn car park in Alicante. They were in two vehicles, in which almost €200,000 worth of cocaine and €30,000 cash were found.

The brother of the Irishman was arrested earlier this year in Ireland as part of the garda investigation into drug routes, after gardaí found a cocaine-processing plant in a raid on a house in south Dublin.

Drug officers fear that the arrest in Spain will not seriously affect the supply of cocaine into Ireland.

“I would like to think it would affect the Christmas market, but I don’t really think so,” said one source.

“The dealers here will just go to someone else. It will dent that supply route, but other people will step in. They may have to pay a higher price initially until they make connections.”

Cocaine has fallen steadily in price in recent years. A kilo is now retailing on the street for around €70,000, compared to €100,000 a few years ago.

“The market for cocaine is huge and growing. People see it as a clean drug, unlike heroin,” said the garda source.

Gardaí say traffickers are now breaking down consignments into separate packages to minimise losses through seizures.

“Traffickers are sending seven couriers over on the same plane, each carrying a kilo or three kilos. If one gets caught, six others go through,” said the source.

Meanwhile, Department of Justice figures show that the estimated street value of drugs seized rose €31 million in 2000 to €121m in 2003.