A PRIVATE company found eight kilos of cocaine inside a locker at Garda HQ after the drugs had been lost by Forensic Science Ireland, the Dail heard tonight.
The embarrassing gaffe was one of a series of shocking revelations about Garda mismanagement that were raised by Labour’s Alan Kelly.
The Tipperary TD also raised concerns about a container of guns at Garda HQ and the use of faulty gun holsters that have been at the centre of a number of incidents.
Deputy Kelly brought one of these faulty gun holsters into the Dail to show to the Justice Minister as he raised serious questions for top brass at An Garda Siochana and the Department of Justice.
The Dail heard that concerns about these holsters were first flagged in a protected disclosure in 2019.
On June 11 2020, a detective was seriously injured after his gun discharged and shot him in the leg outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin.
Experts later found that the garda’s holster was so faulty that it could accidentally trigger the gun and the weapon could be removed despite the retention strap being fastened.
One week after the incident outside the Israeli Embassy, Detective Garda Colm Horkan was murdered with his own gun by killer Stephen Silver in Co Roscommon.
Deputy Kelly told the Dail that Detective Horkan was wearing one of the defective holsters.
He claimed that a safety notice about gun holsters was then issued to superintendents the following month and was uploaded to the Pulse System in September.
The Labour TD claimed these holsters remained an issue for gardai until March 2023 when the Commissioner told the Department of Justice that they had been all gathered and destroyed.
However, Deputy Kelly raised one of these holsters in the Dail and asked: “If they were all removed and shredded as you said in your response to my PQ, why can I get my hands on as many of them as I want – including the one I’m holding in my hand right now?”
CONTAINER OF GUNS
The Tipperary politician then moved to another issue where he raised a photograph in the Dail of a container of guns that was found in Garda HQ.
He said 392 weapons were being kept in the container but only 152 were recorded on the Pulse System and only 92 had serial numbers.
He said: “This is the inside of the container. This is how firearms were stored by An Garda Siochana.”
The Labour TD then raised a shocking incident where eight kilos of cocaine went missing from Forensic Science Ireland in 2019 and was later found by a private company in a locker at Garda HQ.
KILOS OF COKE
The drugs were found inside a locker by a private company that had been brought in to carry out work in Garda HQ and were moving the lockers.
Deputy Kelly said: “How in the name of God did that happen? How is this possible? What knowledge did the Department have in relation to this?
“Only for the fact that the private company was so honourable that cocaine could have ended up back on the streets.”
