The head of An Garda Síochána’s Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau has said gardaí are actively focusing on those engaged in drug-related intimidation and violence, while also identifying through a research project who is involved and the reasons behind it.
Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland said most organised crime gangs operating in Ireland are involved in drug trafficking and that 24 of these groups are considered high-priority targets, reports RTE.
He also cautioned against attempts to sanitise the activities of the Hutch Organised Crime Group and highlighted the danger to democracy posed by organised crime seeking political influence.
The bureau has identified 169 organised crime groups operating in Ireland, with 65% involved in drug trafficking as their main source of income, a higher figure than the EU average of 50% of criminal gangs involved in drugs, reports RTE.
Det Chief Supt Boland said gardaí are currently targeting individuals at the highest level, with 17 national priority operations focused on those causing the greatest harm in communities, including the Kinahan and Hutch Organised Crime Groups and ‘The Family’.
He said the bureau is also targeting seven other major criminal gangs through secondary operations, noting that many of these gangs are interconnected and collaborate with one another, reports RTE.
These groups cooperate in smuggling operations, which broadens the range of drugs imported and reduces the potential financial loss if shipments are intercepted.
Analysis of drug consignments by Forensic Science Ireland has shown that an average shipment contains five different drugs, reports RTE.
Gardaí say they have been dealing with drug-related intimidation for more than 20 years, since inspectors were appointed in garda divisions as confidential contact points for people seeking help.
Det Chief Supt Boland said gardaí are currently working with other agencies on a research project to determine the scale of the problem, those involved, the victims targeted and the locations where attacks occur, reports RTE.
He said the Drug Related Intimidation Violent Reporting Project, known as the DRIVE project, has found so far that most victims are females aged between 40 and 60, while those carrying out intimidation and violence are mainly young men aged between 18 and 24.
He also said that while most attacks have occurred in Dublin and the eastern region, where the population is concentrated, there have also been violent and reckless attacks in rural Ireland, including the murders of 60-year-old Mary Holt and four-year-old Tadhg Farrell in Edenderry, Co Offaly, reports RTE.
He added that attacks usually take place at people’s homes, where people should “feel their safest” and that intimidation has become easier through social media and mobile phones, allowing fear to spread more easily in connected communities.
Det Chief Supt Boland stressed, however, that tackling this violence is “a huge priority” for gardaí, reports RTE.
He said gardaí are eager for people to come forward and report all instances of drug-related violence and intimidation, as early reporting can help them intervene sooner and prevent attacks.
He also said the research being carried out under the DRIVE project is important, adding that the methodology used has already proven successful in tackling other organised crime offences such as gangland shootings, murders and burglary gangs, reports RTE.
“When I talk about research, we are not sitting on our hands, just letting research take place,” he said, reports RTE.
“If I go back to the Hutch-Kinahan feud, 2016, the levels of organised crime, the murders taking place, our identification of the groups that were involved, the decision makers, the people who were willing to pull the triggers, their support structures; our analysis and identification of that, allowed us to target those groups which resulted in many of them being intercepted as they were about to carry out murders,” Det Chief Supt Boland said.
“We prevented so many murders, incarcerated for many years some of the most violent people that are alive in Ireland at the moment, and we have seen a significant drop to a generational low for organised crime murders,” he added, reports RTE.
He also said gardaí faced a similar issue with domestic burglaries in 2015, but that investigations and prosecutions based on data analysis resulted in a 50% reduction in the crime.
“An Garda Síochána established Operation Thor and at the same time working on a body of analysis to ensure that we identified who were the main perpetrators, who were the main groups,” he said, “and all the resources were then focused on those groups to dismantle them and bring them before the courts, and lock them up,” reports RTE.
Rise in cocaine use
The European Union has said organised crime poses a major threat to EU security due to the vast sums of money generated and its ability to infiltrate and corrupt society, reports RTE.
Cocaine has replaced heroin as the most commonly used drug across Europe and has never been cheaper, as South American cartels continue to flood the continent with multi-tonne shipments.
A kilo of cocaine that previously cost between €20,000 and €40,000 wholesale can now be purchased in Europe for €13,000, reports RTE.
Irish gangs are buying cocaine at that price and maximising profits by diluting it and selling it at retail for €70,000.
The reduction in wholesale prices has not been passed on to consumers, reports RTE.
A street deal of 1.3g of cocaine sells for about €100, but gardaí say average purity is 58%, with some samples containing as little as 2% cocaine.
Instead, they are mixed with paracetamol, lidocaine, caffeine and benzodiazepines, reports RTE.
Many users now purchase drugs through social media and have them delivered, often in pubs, and due to alcohol consumption they may not realise they are being short-changed.
Many still believe they are getting high, when in reality they are consuming ingredients similar to tea and coffee, reports RTE.
Gardaí say the “normalisation of cocaine” has become a serious issue.
Det Chief Supt Boland highlighted a divide of 20% who take drugs and 80% who do not, saying organised crime problems are “emanating from the decision of the 20% to consume drugs”, reports RTE.
“Casual drug use is the issue, socialising, using cocaine but taking no responsibility,” he said.
“I would ask everyone to do their piece, stop socially using drugs and the money stops going into the organised crime groups,” he said, reports RTE.
The seizure of the largest cocaine consignment in the State’s history from the MV Mathew cargo ship has underlined the global reach of organised crime and its impact on Ireland.
The involvement of Iranian nationals in smuggling drugs into Ireland was unprecedented, reports RTE.
Investigations also led gardaí to the Middle East, identifying individuals linked to Iran’s sanctioned shipping lines.
The hitman Naoufal Fassih, brought to Dublin by the Kinahan group and now serving a life sentence in the Netherlands, was involved in a plot that led to the murder of Iranian dissident Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, reports RTE.
Kolahi Samadi had been living under an assumed name after fleeing Iran in 1981, having been sentenced to death in absentia for allegedly planting a bomb that killed 73 people at the Islamic Republican Party headquarters.
He was shot in the head on 15 December 2015 in Almere, reports RTE.
“Phone evidence showed they didn’t even know why they were targeting this individual,” Det Chief Supt Boland said, “except one of the text messages said ‘cos the Iranians wanted him’,” reports RTE.
He also said Irish criminal gangs are working with Russian and Ukrainian networks, laundering money through Russian channels.
“We’ve seen Russian money laundering heavily involved in using Ukrainian refugees across Europe for the transportation of bulk cash which emanates from drug trafficking,” he said, reports RTE.
“The Russian war in Ukraine has created a situation where there’s a vast number of Ukrainian refugees spread out all across Europe, and unfortunately, criminal organisations will attempt to use those networks to further their goals,” Det Chief Supt Boland added.
Gardaí seized more than €1.3m in cash in three seizures between April 2024 and April 2025, reports RTE.
Seven people have been arrested and charged and are currently before the courts.
An eighth person, Igor Logvinov, a courier for the network, was sentenced to three years in prison in July 2023 and €57,200 was forfeited to the State, reports RTE.
Almost ten years after the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in February 2016, Det Chief Supt Boland said investigations into the Hutch Organised Crime Group remain ongoing.
He said the Kinahan group’s leadership is based in Dubai, adding that engagement with the UAE authorities is progressing investigations at a swift pace, reports RTE.
“I would hope 2026, the 10th anniversary of the murderous attack, will be a significant year,” he said.
He also said the threat to democracy posed by organised crime has already been recognised and Ireland must remain alert to it going forward, reports RTE.
He again warned against sanitising the activities of the Hutch Organised Crime Group and the danger of organised crime seeking political power.
“The Hutch Organised Crime Gang is the group that was behind the most audacious, murderous attack in the history of this state,” he said. “I think it’s important that history isn’t allowed to be rewritten at times,” reports RTE.
Det Chief Supt Boland declined to comment on the potential candidacy of Gerard Hutch in the upcoming Dublin Central by-election, saying gardaí are apolitical and it is a matter for voters.
However, he acknowledged that the Special Criminal Court found Hutch had control of the guns used in David Byrne’s murder in 2016, reports RTE.
“Organised Crime has been seen internationally in the efforts to corrupt at local and higher level,” he said, “the threat potentially from that is recognised, and Ireland just needs to be conscious of that going forward,” reports RTE.
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