There were 3,000 more controlled drug crimes in the first three months of this year than in 2019, new figures reveal.
A total of 22,166 offences were recorded between January and March 2020, a jump of 15.7% on the 19,163 incidents in the same timeframe last year.
Fraud offences also jumped by 15% with 7,898 in the first quarter of this year compared with 6,872 in 2019.
The Central Statistics Office Recorded Crime stats also expose an 11.3% rise in weapons and explosives offences from 2,497 in Q1 2019 to 2,778 this year.
At the other end of the scale, homicides were down 16.9% from 71 in the first three months of last year to 59 in Q1 2020.
Organised crime offences dropped 4.7% from 16,549 to 15,775 while robbery, extortion and hijacking offences also dropped 4.7% from 2,419 to 2,306.
Sexual offences were also down by 4.6% from 3,263 in the first three months of 2019 to 3,114 in January to March of this year.
