A local Garda member has claimed that crime gangs are sending people to university to get chemical engineering degrees so they can then employ them for their expertise in petrol stretching as well as diesel laundering along the border.
Dundalk-based Garda Robbie Peelo, who is on the Garda Representative Association’s central executive committee, told the GRA’s annual conference yesterday that the fuel-altering operations were extremely sophisticated and were not only costing the State lost revenue but millions in having to export the toxic sludge by-products for disposal in Germany.
“Revenue and Customs have introduced a dye [in diesel] that they have told us cannot be removed. But the diesel washing continues to take place. It is in fuel stations throughout the country,” Garda Peelo said.
Petrol stretching has become a serious problem in some of the border counties and has destroyed numerous car engines.
Garda Peelo also warned that illicit diesel and stretched petrol is making its way further south.
““You will see fuel lorries along the south Armagh and south Down border with registration plates from Cork, Kerry and Donegal. This isn’t just along the border. Fuel lorries will travel up from the areas, from as far down as west Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Waterford, they will travel up to the border for the laundered fuel and travel back.
“People seem to think that this is a backyard operation. This isn’t; this is a very sophisticated operation. We have got individuals going through third-level, studying to become chemical engineers in order to beat these dyes and get them removed to sell washed diesel. This is a multi-million euro industry,” Garda Peelo said.
Source: The Irish Examiner
