Published Thursday, 03 June 2010
More than 900 suspects were arrested as a result of the intelligence-led operations.
The PSNI detailed the drugs, cigarettes, cash and cars recovered in the past 12 months just days after it emerged that the service spent £405,000 running agents during the same period.
The £21.7m haul consisted of £17.4m worth of drugs, £3.5m of other goods including contraband cigarettes, vehicles to the value of £459,000 and £350,000 in cash.
Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris said the seizures and subsequent arrests proved the worth of intelligence.
"By any yardstick this is an outstanding achievement," he said.
"My officers are using intelligence to make a substantial impact on serious, organised and volume crime.
"The outcome is that communities are safer and criminals do not profit from crime."
He added: "Last week it was disclosed that the service had spent £405,000 on intelligence sources last year. Today's figures demonstrate the value for money achieved by our strategy and the positive impact which properly managed intelligence is delivering for our communities."
The intelligence stats were released as Chief Constable Matt Baggott outlined wider police performance figures for the last year.
He said notable successes included a marked increase in the number of drug gangs frustrated - up from 41 to 70 - and reductions in anti-social behaviour - down 5.8% - and criminal damage - down 6.9%.
However, there was a worrying 18% rise in the level of serious violent crime in the past year, with more than 360 more incidents.
'Not complacent'
Commenting on the overall performance figures, Mr Baggott said: "While these improvements are to be welcomed, we are not complacent.
"We will focus our efforts by listening to communities to identify the local issues of concern and then work together in a very personal and professional manner to protect our communities and reduce serious harm."
The Chief Constable added: "I have made a commitment to increase personal contact with communities and put extra police officers on the frontline. This is already under way with over 400 more officers now working in neighbourhoods across Northern Ireland than there were on June 1 2009.
"More of my colleagues will be joining them in the coming months and by tackling bureaucracy, streamlining our systems and further improving our use of technology we will enable police officers to spend more time with their communities, listening and acting in partnership to combat harm and deliver real results - taking drugs off our streets, reducing road deaths, dealing with alcohol-related crime and working with communities to disrupt terrorist activity."
He said policing continued to be delivered against the backdrop of a significant threat from dissidents.
"With great support from our An Garda Siochana and Security Service colleagues, we remain committed to tackling the dissident terrorist threat," he said.
"Without this threat, we could concentrate our resources on reducing crime levels even further.
"These are testing times, but we remain committed to working with all communities to provide the public with the personal, professional and protective policing service they deserve."