COMMUTERS using Donegal Airport are among the most law-abiding in the world it seems.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that not a single item of contraband was seized at Carrickfinn between 2017 and 2021.
The Donegal News asked the question after specialist gardaí intercepted a cocaine haul worth €8.4m that had been flown in to Abbeyshrule Aerodrome in Co Longford. The 120kg of the drug was transported in a four-seat Cessna that had flown from France.
Gardaí suspect the international drug gang behind the shipment may have been using the route for over a year.
Figures show that during the five year period, Revenue carried out a total of 25 checks of Donegal Airport.
Of those 16 were pre-arranged with airport staff.
But in a sudden acceleration of its operations, customs officials made nine surprise visits to the airfield in 2020.
On every single occasion inspectors left empty handed.
According to data from the customs control watchdog not as much as an unstamped cigarette has made its way through Carrickfinn in the last five years.
Users of the airport were also given a clean bill of health across multiple categories deemed illegal under Irish law.
These include ammunition, food, beer, spirits, drugs, medicinal products pornography and weapons.
Few, if any, of Ireland’s other airports can report similar levels of compliance.
Knock Airport has seen 236 seizures of contraband over the past five years.
From 2017 to 2019 between 68 and 86 seizures a year of cannabis herb, cigarettes, drugs paraphernalia, spirits and tobacco were made.
The number of seizures did however drop to four and three in the last two years due to the pandemic.
Along with Knock, Kerry is the only other airport outside the big three – Dublin, Cork and Shannon – where Revenue made seizures.
Weapons, cocaine, cannabis, spirits, wine, tobacco and cigarettes were found in 13 seizures.
Revenue records show the three large airports have different items that regularly top the most-seized contraband list.
In Cork meat products are the most common item seized while in Dublin cigarettes topped the list.
In Shannon contraband medicinal products were the most common item seized in two of the last five years.
A spokesperson for Donegal Airport said that Revenue conduct its own visits and inspections and that its findings were not shared with staff in Carrickfinn.
“The inspections carried out by Revenue are distinct from our own stringent security measures. But the results can only be seen as a positive for Donegal Airport and long may it continue,” they added.
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