Cannabis worth €5.4m found hidden in fruit at Europort
REVENUE Officers at Rosslare Europort made a shocking discovery on Saturday morning as they uncovered herbal cannabis with an estimated street value of €5.4 million concealed within a load of melons and oranges arriving into the country in an unaccompanied trailer arriving from Spain.
Revenue Officers uncovered the haul of 227kgs of cannabis herb as a result of routine profiling and the search took place with the assistance of Revenue’s mobile x-ray scanner, which led to the discovery of the concealed drugs. The load had arrived into Rosslare on a Brittany Ferries sailing from Bilbao in Spain and a full scale investigation is now ongoing.
A spokesperson for the Revenue said that ‘ these routine operations are part of the Revenue’s ongoing work targeting drug smuggling and shadow economy activity.’
Revenue have appealed for anyone with information to contact them in complete confidence on their confidential phone line at 1800 295295.
This latest incident follows on from the seizure of €1.5 million of cocaine at the port back in March, raising some questions over the amount of contraband passing through Rosslare on a regular basis.
Speaking on the most recent find Chairman of the Rosslare Municipal District Cllr Ger Carthy congratulated customs officers.
‘When you open up new routes, you will always have the possibility of drug trafficking,’ he said. ‘I think it’s very welcome that the customs have managed to uncover such a substantial haul and Maureen Dalton and her team are to be congratulated on the work that they’re doing down there. With the increase of traffic into the port and the hope to increase it further, maybe it’s time we looked into getting a permanent structure for carrying out x-ray scans of trucks and containers coming into the port.’