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COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS SAW that drug traffickers use rental cars, the postal service, exploit children like mules and keep their money at home in a desperate attempt to keep their business going, say high-ranking Garda sources .
The illicit drug market was hit hard after the initial shutdown due to an increase in Garda checkpoints and the nationwide closure of pubs, nightclubs and other social media used by traffickers to distribute drugs.
The Garda Office of Drugs and Organized Crime also seized a record amount of drugs during the pandemic, seizing drugs valued at more than € 36 million in the first 11 months of 2020, compared to € 21.3 million in total. in 2019.
Meanwhile, figures from the Central Statistical Office show that drug-related crime reports increased by 13.5% between March and May 2020, with 22,773 crimes recorded in the three-month period.
CSO statistician Sam Scriven said this may be due to increased detection rather than an increase in crime.
“Given the particular circumstances of the [first] lockdown seemed plausible to me that increased surveillance and checkpoints could be one of those factors [why recorded crime increased]”.
The Covid-19 restrictions brought about changes in the behavior of both drug traffickers and drug users. Traffickers found new ways to distribute drugs, while many addicts turned to drug rehab services for help.
Covid-19 restrictions forced traffickers to come up with new ways to distribute drugs.
Rental cars
“The high presence of the Garda at the beginning of the confinement made the criminals reconsider their strategies,” said a Garda detective. “Initially they started using [rental cars] because that’s not something you think a criminal would use. “
The Garda source said rental cars became a preferred method of transportation for drug traffickers because their own cars were often well known to the Gardaí and were more likely to be stopped and searched.
Since some rental cars only require an online identity confirmation, there is no guarantee that the person who hired the car and the person who was driving it are the same. This made it increasingly difficult for Gardaí to catch drug traffickers in the act.
Postal Service
Many traffickers turned to the internet and the postal service in an attempt to find new ways to transport their drugs, according to Anna Quigley, CityWide Drugs campaign coordinator.
“Like many companies operating online now thanks to Covid, the drug business adapted in the same way,” he said.
The rise in online shopping through websites also allowed distributors to hide a greater volume of artificial drugs within legitimate packages, said UCC Professor of Criminology Dr. James Windle.
When asked for comment, An Post commercial director Jason Byrne said that whenever there is any suspicion about the contents of a package, An Post workers review it and their intention is to seize any medication before it is delivered. .
He said: “Due to the scale of our company and that we accept parcels and parcels in Ireland and abroad, we have revenue commissioners on our sites along with their sniffer dogs. They will go through the shipments that are presented to An Post at their processing plants and examine them for any unwanted contraband. “
On December 18 last year, tax agents from the Dublin Mail Center seized various types of illegal drugs with an estimated value of 117,000 euros.
Nearly 16 kg of drugs, including herbal cannabis, magic mushrooms, liquid amphetamines and cannabis-infused jelly candies, were discovered in packages originating in the United States, France and the Netherlands. The packages were declared as items such as ‘ornaments’, ‘sweets’, ‘clothing’ and ‘gifts’ and were destined for addresses in Dublin and Louth.
The day before that seizure, Finance officials from the Athlone Mail Center seized 1.7 kg of illegal drugs of various kinds, with an estimated value of almost 21,400 euros.
The same month, IRS agents and a detector dog found items originating in the United States and marked as ‘sweaters’, ‘wedding invitations’, a ‘makeup stand’ and ‘plastic ornaments’ containing herbal cannabis with a estimated value of € 72,300. The packages were destined for addresses in Dublin, Donegal, Galway, Limerick and Kerry.
Exploit children
Traffickers increased the use of young children as mules and runners to transport drugs during the lockdown when schools were closed.
Local political representatives in Dublin said drug traffickers explicitly prey on children from underprivileged areas.
Councilor Daithí Doolan, leader of the Sinn Féin group in Dublin City Council, explained that “these guys come out saying ‘we can put money in your pocket, we will give you the tracksuits and fancy bikes if you work a little for us.’ “
Doolan said that children involved in drug crimes are often trapped with debts they cannot pay and this can result in threats of violence. “If you can’t pay, your family will pay and they will visit your family every night of every week of every year until that money is paid. On each visit, they charge you for the visit. They will send people to threaten you, your children, to burn down your house, “he added.
Dealers hide drug money at home
Gardaí says that Covid-19 restrictions also changed the way drug traffickers stored their criminal proceeds. Before the restrictions, many criminals laundered their money through gambling and other means, but the senior gardaí said this was no longer possible during Covid’s months of lockdown.
A source from the Superintendent of Detective Garda said “… they are storing more and more money at home in recent months and we have had some success identifying and seizing drug-related money that may have normally been laundered through different accounts or businesses. “.
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The Detective Superintendent said the Gardaí became aware of this during searches and investigations stemming from an increased Garda presence during the confinement.
Covid changed the behavior of drug users
Covid-19 restrictions made it difficult for drug addicts to feed or pay for their drug use habits and this had repercussions on drug rehabilitation services.
Chloe Fitzgerald, formerly of the Ana Liffey Drug Project, said that “most of the drug users that we see would also use tablets, heroin and crack. And they developed a great tolerance to these benzodiazepines. But they were scarce and the people had no money; they were desperately turning to professionals for help. “
If addicts stop taking benzos after they have developed a tolerance for them, they can have what’s known as a benzo fit, leaving them in a critical condition, one reason more people sought a community detox during lockdown.
“Due to the closure, I found that there were more people seeking help regarding methadone and community detox,” Fitzgerald said. A community detox is when an addict goes to the doctor and they are prescribed a medicine and then the doctor slowly reduces the dose.
The shelters were also required to operate at reduced capacity. The rooms of eight were reduced to four, forcing people to return to the streets and, in turn, causing many people to use drugs again.
Drug rehabilitation center services also faced changes during the shutdown. They mainly focused on outreach work and closed their walk-ins. Workers worked proactively to take the vulnerable homeless into hotels to protect them from the virus. They also walked the streets to assess people with symptoms in order to take them to isolation units until they could be tested.
Covid changed drug use
The World Drug Survey examined drug and alcohol use during the pandemic for seven weeks during May and June 2020, surveying 55,811 people from 11 countries, including 4,518 people in Ireland.
It found that 74% of 1,200 respondents in Ireland believed that Covid restrictions reduced the availability of illicit drugs, a figure that ranks Ireland highest of the 11 countries surveyed, compared to 55% in the Kingdom. United, 48% in the US and 35% in the Netherlands.
The survey found that the pandemic caused changes in cannabis use. Of the 927 people who reported using cannabis products, 39% said they increased their use during the pandemic, while 28% said they used less and 33% said they used the same amount.
Cannabis, in its various forms, accounted for almost half the monetary value of seizures by the Garda Office of Drugs and Organized Crime, with a total of € 15.2 million discovered. The office also seized 209 kg of cocaine, worth 14.6 million euros; 24 kg of heroin, at 3.3 million euros; and 15 kg of ketamine, at € 900,000.
In the first half of 2020, € 20 million worth of cannabis, resin, amphetamines, heroin and ecstasy were seized, compared to € 23 million in total seized in 2019.
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