Gardaí seized almost 40 e-scooters and e-bikes across Dublin as part of a “high-impact day of action” to tackle illegal use of the vehicles.
Officers carried out 63 searches across the Dublin region as part of Operation Meacán on Tuesday morning, seizing scramblers and a number of quad bikes in addition to the 38 e-scooters and e-bikes.
During the searches, a sawn-off shotgun with ammunition was seized, as well as €8,000 in cash and more than €80,000 worth of suspected drugs.
A man in his 20s was arrested and is being held under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act at a Dublin Garda station.
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Det Sup Insp Jason Miley said more than 100 gardaí were involved in the west Dublin operation and another 200 were likewise engaged in the city centre.
He said tackling e-scooter usage can be “challenging” but added there is an “organisational focus on ensuring that we do as much as we can with the legislation that we have”.
Det Sup Insp Liam Geraghty said there was an opportunity for those who use e-scooters to “get themselves road-ready and road-legal”.
On a daily basis, there are e-scooters being seized across the city and countrywide where necessary.
He said a “major step forward” in tackling illegal e-scooter use is the number of retailers that have removed the sale of e-scooters marketed towards children or that break the 20km/h limit.
A Garda source said e-scooter searches are being conducted alongside drug searches, based on intelligence aimed at identifying individuals involved in criminal activity.
Gardaí at checkpoints will use portable dynamometers to measure the locked and unlocked speed of an e-scooter to check its legality.
Hi-viz jackets and helmets are now mandatory under new e-scooter regulations that came into effect at the beginning of August. The new laws also extended the ban from under-16s to under-18s. From September, every e-scooter user in the Republic will require a licence and registration.
Operation Meacán, which began in December 2023 in the Dublin Metropolitan Region, targets the use of electric motorbikes, e-scooters and e-bikes for criminal activity including drug distribution, money laundering, transporting firearms, drug-related intimidation and other serious offences.
