Large cocaine seizures in recent years have led to a surge in the wholesale price of the drug, resulting in some dealers reducing the potency of street cocaine in Ireland to try to protect their profits.
Gardaí have seized quantities of cocaine offered for sale in pubs that was below 2 per cent purity, meaning the drug was heavily diluted and composed almost entirely of substances other than cocaine.
The Garda’s most senior drug squad investigator said cocaine valued at €157 million seized on the MV Matthew ship in 2023 increased the price of the drug on the wholesale market in Ireland as the cartel who controlled the drugs carried out an “investigation” into what had gone wrong.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Det Chief Supt Seamus Boland, who leads the Garda’s Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, said the cost of 1kg of cocaine increased to €40,000, from €25,000, in the period after the Panamanian tanker was intercepted in a Garda and Defence Forces operation off the coast of Cork in 2023.
The seizure resulted in a reduced supply of cocaine as drug traffickers decided to “pull back” on smuggling runs amid a loss of confidence in Irish drug dealers who encouraged them to route 2.2 tonnes of cocaine through Irish waters.
“There was distrust on their side, so until they carried out their own investigations, they pulled back,” he said of the Dubai-based criminals who control the routes into Europe.
Those senior European figures include Dubliner Daniel Kinahan, the leader of the Kinahan cartel.
Det Chief Supt Boland said in the period since 2023 the shock within criminal networks caused by the MV Matthew cocaine seizure – the biggest of its kind in Ireland – dissipated and the wholesale value of cocaine returned to €25,000-€30,000.
[ ‘Most drug users are functioning people. They go to work, go to college’Opens in new window ]
Overall, he said the Forensic Science Ireland tests showed the average purity of cocaine in Ireland was about 58 per cent, and was imported in consignments that were over 90 per cent pure.
More recently, however, cocaine seized by gardaí that had been offered for sale in pubs was below 2 per cent purity and the substance was mixed with other products, usually medicinal substances to bulk it up.
Det Chief Supt Boland said people who bought the drug often did not notice because they were already drunk.
On the subject of violent crime, he said while fatal shootings linked to organised crime had been at record lows in recent years, drug-related intimidation was a major concern.
It was likely to become an even bigger focus for the Garda next year, especially in the wake of the firebombing in Edenderry, Co Offaly, on the night of December 5th.
It claimed the lives of Tadgh Farrell (4) and his grand-aunt Mary Holt (60) who were in the family home on Castleview Park at the time.
In a separate incident, weeks earlier, a woman was seriously injured after she was sprayed with petrol and set on fire by a caller to her home in Clondalkin, Dublin.
“The majority of people who are using cocaine and are feeding this whole industry don’t live in communities that are devastated by violence – it never comes to their door,” said the senior garda.
[ ‘The Regency changed everything’: Why Ireland’s gangland gun murders have stoppedOpens in new window ]
“Good, successful people use cocaine; working people are also using it and they’re not impacting on our crime stats in any other way,” he said.
“Yet they see no correlation between their so-called bit of craic on a Friday and Saturday night and then saying: ‘God, that’s terrible what’s after happening down in Offaly’. But it’s all interconnected.”