Repost: Dismantling organised crime groups in Ireland. Ten years of the GNDOCB.

Our Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) was established ten years ago this month, in March 2015. Last year, Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland spoke to the Garda Podcast about the history of the bureau and its determination to disrupt, dismantle and prosecute those taking part in organised crime in Ireland.

Over the last ten years, 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.