1,900 weapons and 235kgs of drugs seized in post centre last year

Ken Foxe

The Revenue Commissioners has seized nearly 1,900 weapons and 1,700 pieces of ammunition that people attempted to send through the post over the past year.

Also intercepted at the State’s main parcel centre was more than 235 kilograms of drugs, over 125,000 tablets, and nearly 50,000 smuggled cigarettes.

Revenue said the most often seized items have been cannabis and medicines with smugglers becoming ever more inventive in disguising consignments.

They said: “Our enforcement teams have uncovered these items hidden in board games, children’s toys, clothing items and also foodstuffs.

“Revenue has also seen an increase in the numbers of weapons and related items, such as knives and parts associated with firearms (scopes/magazines), being detected.”

An inventory of seizures from the Dublin Mail Centre shows that 1,700 pieces of ammunition were seized during the past 12 months with 1,000 of those taking place last December.

There were 48,559 smuggled cigarettes discovered along with 1,305 unstamped cigarettes, according to the data.

Over 236 kilograms of drugs were seized as well as about 6.5 litres of liquid narcotics and just over 125,000 tablets of various kinds.

A further 42.7 kilograms of loose tobacco were found stashed in parcels along with just under two kilos of unstamped tobacco.

Revenue also reported the discovery of 1,870 different weapons, with more than half of those seizures taking place in April of this year.

There were also very small quantities of alcohol seized, which included 2.45 litres of wine and four litres of beer.

No items relating to the trade of endangered species or intellectual property rights material were listed by Revenue in the Dublin Parcel Centre seizure inventory.

Asked about the seizures, a spokesman for Revenue said: “[We take] a risk-based approach to our detection and intervention strategy, as part of which Revenue monitors and evaluates all points of entry into the state on an ongoing basis.

“Revenue uses the latest detection methods in its work and has a range of assets, such as mobile x-ray scanners, drug detector dogs and 24/7 staff available to deploy where required."