Balkan gang linked to Ireland's biggest cocaine haul of 2023 

The cocaine seized at Rosslare is worth €11.4m. Picture: Revenue

Gardaí believe a major Balkan drug gang is behind the seizure of almost 163kgs of cocaine at Rosslare port.

The haul, made by Customs, is by far the biggest seizure of cocaine this year, and brings the total amount intercepted by Customs in 2023 to around 265kgs.

The cocaine, valued at €11.4m, was concealed in a hidden compartment constructed inside the roof of a horsebox that disembarked off a ferry in Rosslare.

Local gardaí were called to the scene and two men, aged in their 20s and 30s and from the Balkans, were arrested.

The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) is engaged in international aspects of the investigation and liaising with Europol and Interpol.

Searches

Customs are conducting an examination into the travel history of the horsebox. The search was conducted based on profiling by officers and a drug detection dog assisted the search.

Further searches are taking place in Ireland as the truck transporting the horsebox is registered here.

Security sources said it was not yet known if an Irish gang was working with the Balkan network, but investigators do suspect that there was some Irish involvement.

“It is too early to say if an Irish gang was involved, but there’s definitely an Irish connection in some form given the Irish-registered truck,” a source said.

Sources said it will take some time to verify who the individuals are through Europol and Interpol databases and to conduct further inquiries on what gang they belonged to and where the cocaine was bound.

“International gangs are always looking for new routes and when you have 160-plus kilos arriving into Rosslare you are not guaranteed it’s for the Irish market,” said a source.

Gangs seek out new routes to get cocaine into the UK market, which is a lot bigger, sources said.

“A lot of this consignment, or at least some of it, is for the UK market,” one source said. 

'Key players'

Security officials here said Balkan gangs are “key players” in the European cocaine market. Sources said Albanian gangs are now thought to control the “bulk” of cocaine into the UK and are beginning to look at the Irish market.

“It would be very naive to think it’s not going to happen here and they [Albanian gangs] are here and have established themselves, but Ireland is still a small market compared to the UK,” said a source.

The haul in Rosslare dwarfs the previous biggest haul this year, that of 55kgs of cocaine that was found inside a shipping container from Ecuador in Ringaskiddy port in Cork last April.

Detailing record cocaine seizures in Europe, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction last month warned that, in a bid to avoid tighter security in major European ports, South American cartels could increasingly target smaller ports in Europe and that this "may well" include Ireland.

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In February 2021, 172kgs of cocaine were uncovered in Ringaskiddy inside a container from Costa Rica.

In July and August 2021, a consignment of 500kgs of cocaine, infused in charcoal, was intercepted in Rotterdam inside a container coming from South America on its way to Dublin Port.

Dutch police, working with DOCB and Revenue, allowed the consignment, valued at €35m, to continue to Dublin Port, where it was confiscated.

These unusually large hauls resulted in Revenue seizing 800kgs of cocaine in 2021. This compared to 63kgs in 2019 and 101kgs in 2020. Some 133kgs of cocaine was seized in 2022.