Drug couriers 'ingesting cocaine and risking their lives for as little as €1,000'

Garda Superintendent Darren McCarthy (right) and Michael Gilligan, Head of Customs at Dublin Airport during an update to media by An Garda Siochana and partners in Revenue Customs following joint intelligence operations at Dublin Airport, which have led to the arrest of a number of international passengers detected importing drugs into Ireland through Dublin Airport in the past ten days. Picture: Gareth Chaney/PA

Vulnerable people are risking their lives by ingesting cocaine to smuggle into Ireland for organised crime gangs for as little as €1,000.

That is despite the fact the drugs they are carrying, often in up to 120 pellets or more concealed internally, can be worth in excess of €100,000 to the gangs.