VIDEO: Gardaí in Louth carry out major cross border operation at M1
Amid the operation, immigration checks were carried out on ten buses and 2 people were deported
Working as part of the Joint Agency Task Force (JATF), Gardaí in Louth conducted a major multi-agency checkpoint on the N1/M1 on Thursday March 6.
The high-visibility operation involved close co-operation between An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), which also conducted a number of high-visibility vehicle checkpoints on the Northern Ireland side of the border. The policing operation, with a focus on rural crime and human trafficking, was aimed at preventing and detecting criminality along the border and at preventing and disrupting the free movement of criminals based in the Republic and Northern Ireland.
The operation was led by Gardaí from the Louth/Cavan/Monaghan Division, assisted by the Garda Air Support Unit, Armed Support Unit, Garda National Immigration Bureau and the Garda Human Trafficking Investigation Unit, alongside officials from Customs and the Department of Social Protection.
During the operation: the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) carried out immigration checks on ten buses and 2 persons were refused Leave to Land and were being deported from the country last night; the Department of Social Protection identified 16 people for whom they wish to carry out further enquiries; there were four detections for drug driving(tested positive for cocaine and cannabis) and other vehicles were seized for having no tax or insurance and other Road Traffic Offences detected; Revenue Customs detected Marked Gas Oil being unlawfully used in six vehicles, one of which was seized.
Chief Inspector Adam Corner of the PSNI said: "We are proud to be involved in this JATF operation with our colleagues in An Garda Síochána. We are utilising a number of PSNI resources in order to control the strategic road network to deny criminals the use of the road.
"Criminals are looking to exploit our border region and border communities and it’s through working with An Garda Síochána, sharing information, we will relentlessly pursue those looking to cause misery and those who look to commit crime in the border area.”
The Garda operation also served as a Mandatory Intoxicating Testing (MIT) checkpoint and focused on providing a high-visibility policing presence to help reduce road deaths.
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Transport Infrastructure Ireland implemented a full traffic management plan to divert all traffic over a period of four hours off the N1 southbound at Junction 18 and onto a slip road where the checkpoint was in place.