Issue Date: 08/03/2025
The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau was established on the 9th March 2015.
Ten years later the GNDOCB has seized
- €627 million in illicit drugs • 171 firearms and 6,586 rounds of ammunition • cash €33,284,931, £385,591 GBP, $59,721 USD and • €20,103,030 forfeited to the state • 1,722 arrests for drug trafficking, money laundering, possession of firearms and other offences
The GNDOCB has interdicted in numerous ‘threat to life’ operations where individuals were being targeted by criminal gangs.
The GNDOCB leads on Operation Tara, to disrupt, dismantle and prosecute drug trafficking networks, at all levels - international, national, local - involved in the importation, distribution, cultivation, production, local sale and supply of controlled drugs. Under Operation Tara, individuals and groups involved in the drug trade are the target of enforcement activity based on intelligence and the latest crime trends.
The GNDOCB co-ordinates and supports Divisional Drugs Units with a strong focus on tackling street-level dealing in cities, towns and villages across the country.
The GNDOCB also supports An Garda Síochána’s well-established Drug Related Intimidation Reporting Programme and supports the Government-led health approach to drug addiction.
Under Operation Thor, the GNDOCB co-ordinates and supports Divisional resources actively targeting organised crime gangs and repeat offenders, particularly involved in rural burglaries and crimes, through enforcement activity based on intelligence and the latest burglary trends.
The GNDOCB actively works with other state agencies including Revenue Customs, and the Irish Naval Service through the Joint Task Force on Drug Interdiction, Criminal Assets Bureau, across the island of Ireland through the Cross-Border Joint Agency Task Force and internationally with INTERPOL, Europol, MAOC (N), and wider through the network of Garda Liaison Officers and contacts in the Americas, Europe and Middle East.
Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the GNDOCB, Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis, Organised and Serious Crime, highlighted that Ireland has the fourth highest demand for illicit drugs in Europe for South American cocaine.
There is a direct link between individuals choosing to use illegal drugs in recreational settings and the murderous criminal cocaine cartels in South America and International Organised Crime Gangs who import and trade in these dangerous drugs. Every line of cocaine used in Ireland is directly linked back to drugs related intimidation that is happening on streets in Ireland.
Assistant Commissioner Willis also highlighted that these criminal cocaine cartels and organised crime groups seek out and target individuals, including the business community, with vulnerabilities, to use them for their criminal activities.
Any person who is approached by any individual, with an ‘easy or quick’ solution to their difficulties must think twice. If you are approached, please contact An Garda Síochána for advice and support.
Any person who wishes to speak with a member of An Garda Síochána or report unusual activity can contact • 999/ 112 • Local Garda Station • Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 • Customs Drugs Watch - Confidential Freephone number 1800 295 295
