State ‘taking foot off pedal’ in war against heroin

THE State was yesterday accused of taking its “foot off the pedal” in the fight against heroin, as Customs officers seized their biggest ever haul of the lethal drug.

The comments were made by a leading drugs agency as Customs seized €2.4 million worth of heroin when sniffer dogs helped uncover 12kg of the drug at Dublin Port. Senior Garda sources yesterday said there was “huge availability” of heroin across the country.

Provisional figures given to the Irish Examiner indicate that almost 70kg of heroin have been seized so far this year. This is continuing last year’s record tally, when 128kg of heroin were seized. The average annual haul of heroin for the previous five years was 24kg.