VIDEO: Gardaí in Louth carry out major cross border operation at M1

Working as part of the Joint Agency Task Force (JATF), Gardaí in Louth conducted a major multi-agency checkpoint on the N1/M1 in Dundalk on Thursday. 

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.

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.

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.