{"id":249298,"date":"2026-01-17T09:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/249298\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T09:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:09:07","slug":"us-becomes-main-cannabis-supplier-to-irish-market-as-drug-smuggling-booms-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/249298\/","title":{"rendered":"US becomes main cannabis supplier to Irish market as drug smuggling booms \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US<\/a> has become the single biggest supplier of cannabis to the Irish drug market after a rapid increase in transatlantic smuggling, new figures show.<\/p>\n

Excess product from saturated legal cannabis markets in the US is now being siphoned off for smuggling into the Republic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The trend has accelerated sharply over the last year, coinciding with US president Donald Trump<\/a> directing unprecedented military and law enforcement action against Venezuela<\/a> and threatening other countries that he has accused of flooding the US with drugs.<\/p>\n

Irish organised crime gangs have forged strong relationships with cannabis suppliers in the US as well as Canada<\/a> and Thailand<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Irish criminals are exploiting the fact that cannabis can be grown legally in those three countries after laws were liberalised. Those markets have now become saturated after years of over-cultivation, resulting in excess stock being exported illegally.<\/p>\n

American suppliers last year accounted for almost half of the cannabis seized at the point of entry into the State. <\/p>\n

About 60 per cent of the cannabis seized as it arrived in the country last year came from the US, Canada and Thailand, despite their role in supplying the Irish drug market being negligible until recent years.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the total value of seized cannabis originating from the US, Canada and Thailand combined was \u20ac4 million. That grew to \u20ac64 million last year, with the strongest growth coming over the last two years.<\/p>\n

This recent spike in drug smuggling, especially from the US, has resulted in a 10-fold increase in the value of cannabis seized by Revenue<\/a>\u2019s customs officers since 2019, to almost \u20ac110 million last year.<\/p>\n

Long read: Ireland\u2019s booming cannabis market and its global links<\/p>\n

\"\"Read the full story by Conor Lally here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In 2019, the total value of cannabis seized in the Republic after arriving from the US was \u20ac1.1 million. Most of it was found in packages in the postal service and had been purchased online. Last year, that grew to \u20ac46 million, including consignments of up to \u20ac3 million detected in air freight.<\/p>\n

Quantities of the drug, valued at hundreds of thousands of euro, are also being discovered in the hand luggage of couriers, often vulnerable people, who arrive in Dublin Airport on flights from the US. <\/p>\n

They engage in crude, high-risk smuggling efforts, especially given the strong odour from the drugs they carry. Many are now on remand in Irish prisons awaiting trial.<\/p>\n

The value of cannabis from Thailand seized in Ireland in 2023 was \u20ac370,000, increasing to \u20ac26 million over the past two years. <\/p>\n

Robert P\u0103tr\u0103ncu\u015f, a crime markets and policy analyst with the European Union Drugs Agency, told The Irish Times trends in 2024, especially American cannabis flooding into Europe, were concerning. <\/p>\n

However, last year witnessed \u201cthe big boom, huge quantities\u201d from the US and Canada \u201cthat surprised everybody\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Father admits shaking baby who remains in critical condition and \u2018unlikely to survive\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This has been driven by the fact cannabis is up to 50 per cent cheaper on the US wholesale market, compared to the wholesale market in Europe.<\/p>\n

Much of the cannabis being offered for sale in Ireland for more than a decade was usually cultivated in grow houses in the Republic, Garda sources said. <\/p>\n

However, the Irish grow-house sector has now been undermined, and largely replaced, by cheaper and higher quality product imported from North America. <\/p>\n

Garda Headquarters and the US Drug Enforcement Administration were both contacted from comment. <\/p>\n

Revenue, whose customs service is responsible for the detection of drugs being smuggled into the Republic, said it was working closely with international partners to combat the cannabis trade. <\/p>\n

\u201cDetections of cannabis products remain high but continue to fluctuate when comparing specific years,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

\u201cCannabis continues to be largely intercepted at mail centres, in air freight and in passenger baggage.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was discovered using \u201cadvanced analytics and a multiplicity of detection technologies\u201d, including X-ray scanners. Risk profiling also took place and detector dog teams were used. <\/p>\n

These resources were \u201ckept under regular review by Revenue, having regard to ongoing risk assessment of smuggling and criminal activities\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US has become the single biggest supplier of cannabis to the Irish drug market after a rapid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[289,969,42,43,11522,1667,40,38,41,39,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-249298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-revenue-commissioners","13":"tag-thailand","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories","18":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}