Drug seizures and arrests 'up from last year' - PSNI
The PSNI has said drug seizures and arrest figures have increased from last year.
The news comes shortly after the announcement of a £2m cannabis seizure on Thursday and Friday last week.
The figures for 2016/17 stood at 5,546 seizures and 2,702 arrests.
There have been several high profile drugs captures over the course of 2018, including a £1.3m recovery of cannabis following a joint operation with Gardaí in March this year.
There was also the discovery of £750,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis in Lisburn and Londonderry in September.
DSI Bobby Singleton said it reflected ongoing work by officers to tackle the scourge of drugs in Northern Ireland.
"We see that as a really good and strong indicator of the proactive work that is going on," he said.
"However, we have seen a shift in terms of importation away from large bulk deliveries, more to 'little and often', to try and evade in particular law enforcement.
"Nothing stands still and certainly from a policing perspective, we need to keep our eye on the horizon as it were and make sure as organised crime adapts and changes, we do the same thing.
"Ideally we'd like to be one step ahead of them, but we need to make sure we're as close as we can be to them to keep people safe.
"The trends remain broadly the same, the most used illicit drug in Northern Ireland is cannabis and continues to be so.
"After that the next biggest one is cocaine and of course, we continue to have our concerns about heroin.
"We're not seeing the scale of problem that you might see in the rest of Ireland or the UK, but there is a heroin problem in Northern Ireland and we're committed to working with, among others, the Public Health Agency, to try and address that.
"The PSNI has to be realistic when it comes to dealing with a drug misuse problem, it's not the job of police alone to try and put a dent in that.
"An effective response requires a whole societal approach and a big part of what we try to do is not only our enforcement work but also to work together with partners on harm reduction initiatives.
"In terms of next year, it will be about not being complacent, trying to build on what we've achieved and lift that bar and redouble our efforts."