The Acting Director General of the Revenue Customs Service has described the seizure of drugs with an estimated value of more than €23 million at Rosslare Europort as "very significant".
It follows the seizure of 783kg of herbal cannabis and 70kg of cannabis resin, with an estimated value of just over €16 million.
The drugs were discovered yesterday by detector dog Jasper, with assistance from Revenue's x-ray scanner, after an unaccompanied freight unit was stopped and searched.
It had disembarked from a ferry in Rosslare in Co Wexford, which had sailed from Bilbao in Spain.
In a separate drugs detection on Thursday at the port, Revenue officers seized 104kg of cocaine, with an estimated value of €7.2 million.
As part of the investigation into the cocaine seizure, two men aged in their 40s and 50s were arrested by gardaí on Friday.
They are being questioned at garda stations in Co Wexford and Co Kerry under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act.
The detections followed joint intelligence led operations between the Revenue Customs Service and An Garda Síochána.
Revenue Commissioner Ruth Kennedy said the hauls "represent a significant seizure for us".
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She said: "Identifying, targeting and dismantling the illegal drugs trade is a key priority for Revenue and to do that we use a variety of techniques, resources and capabilities.
"We combine that with advanced analytics, also the use of technology like x-ray scanners and also our detector dogs, which are a key part of our programme."
Ms Kennedy said Revenue works very closely with international and national counterparts.
"So, that sharing and developing of intelligence is key, but it is a risk-based approach we take," she said.
Speaking to RTÉ News at Rosslare Europort, the commissioner said the vast majority of trade in the port is legitimate and she said there has been "a huge growth in trade" at the port since Brexit.
"There is about a four-fold increase in routes now, since about 2019 and actually we've matched that with a four-fold increase in resources here in Rosslare," she said.
"We're agile in how we deploy our resources, both our people and our technology, and we have to react to how agile the criminal gangs are as well," she said.
But, Ms Kennedy said: "We change our tactics as they change their tactics."
The investigations into the seizures are ongoing.
