Drugs sleuth Dillon sniffs out €10m cannabis haul

CUSTOMS dog Dillon dealt another massive blow to drug traffickers when he sniffed out 1.4 tonnes of cannabis at Rosslare Europort.

The seizure, worth about €10 million on the street, is one of the largest hauls of cannabis in recent years by Customs and the biggest ever at Rosslare.

In what is his fifth cannabis haul at Rosslare this year, Dillon has uncovered a total of 2.67 tonnes of cannabis, worth almost €19m.

He was again centre-stage when he signalled the presence of drugs on board a truck.

Officers had pulled the Dutch-registered refrigerated articulated truck over for examination as part of its routine risk-profiling of containers coming off ferries. The truck, which arrived on the car-ferry from the Netherlands via Britain, contained a load of potted plants consigned to a business address in Cork.

A Customs spokesman said Dillon gave a “positive indication” that drugs may be present. Dogs do this by sitting and staring out.

He said officers further checked the trailer: “An extensive search uncovered an elaborate concealment in a false floor of the trailer.”

Experienced staff noticed the wooden floor did not seem to be the original floor, fuelling suspicions.

When they removed part of the flooring they saw “steel-plated compartments”, said the spokesman.

The officers contacted a private company specialising in machine equipment who brought along angle-grinders to cut through the steel.

When they cut through the compartments they found what turned out to be 1,450kgs of cannabis resin.

Gardaí at Wexford were contacted. The driver, a 42-year-old Dutch national, was arrested under section 2 Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996, and detained at Wexford Garda Station.

It is understood the Cork business down to received the consignment was a legitimate company. Typically, the names and addresses of such businesses are used by smugglers as a cover and the companies themselves are completely innocent.

The Customs Investigations and Prosecutions Division is working with gardaí to trace the origin and intended destination of the load and, if possible, the people behind it.

Last April, Dillon scented 1,145kgs of cannabis, worth €8m at the port. In three subsequent hauls, he sniffed out a further 113kgs of cannabis.

By the end of August, Customs had seized €23m worth of drugs.