Criminals Using Food Delivery Drivers to Transport Drugs During Covid-19 Lockdown



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Ireland is among a number of countries where criminals use food delivery drivers to transport drugs during the Covid-19 blockades.

Food delivery drivers are now common on deserted streets due to the public health emergency.

Interpol, the international criminal police organization, has received reports from the police in Ireland, Malaysia, Spain and Great Britain of delivery drivers transporting drugs.

Some of the drugs, including cocaine, marijuana, ketamine, and ecstasy, were hidden within a false bottom of home delivery backpacks.

Gardaí in Dublin recovered 8 kg of cocaine with a street value of around € 500,000, as well as two pistols hidden in pizza boxes in early April. The drug seizure, one of the largest so far this year, followed a dramatic car chase through the city.

Spanish police arrested seven people dressed as food delivery drivers in Alicante and Valencia who were trying to transport illicit drugs.

Gardaí was driving a Covid-19 checkpoint on Phibsboro Road in Dublin around 4.30 am on Tuesday April 14 when they attempted to stop a car. The car rushed into the city center and Gardaí performed “a managed containment operation” that ended when the vehicle collided with a wall at Essex Quay.

One of the occupants was seen throwing something into the Liffey River and two guns were later recovered during a search by members of the Garda Sub-Aqua Unit. Gardaí searched the car and found another package containing 8 kg of cocaine and a small amount of cannabis.

Two men and a woman were arrested and Gardaí involved in the case continues his investigations.

Based on the arrests in Ireland and Spain, as well as the incidents in other countries, Interpol has issued a “purple notice” alerting its 194 member countries to the new modus operandi used by criminals.

“As criminals continue to adapt their activities in a world contrary to Covid-19, Interpol’s purple notices are essential tools to allow police around the world to learn from the successes of others, said the executive director of Interpol Police Services, Stephen Kavanagh.

A Malaysian horseman, used as an unintentional drug mule, became suspicious and asked police to inspect his food package. He weighed 11 kg, but he had only been asked for a single order of Indian flatbread.

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