€800k haul of synthetic drugs seized in Waterford

A massive haul of synthetic drugs, including what is thought to be a new substance, has been seized in Waterford City.

A customs spokesman said the operation involved a controlled delivery of a parcel which had arrived into Cork Airport from China.

One of the drugs found, PVP, is not thought to have been seized here before, while a second substance, butylone, was only found in tiny quantities last year.

At lunchtime yesterday, gardaí and customs officers seized 18kg of powders, worth over €800,000, at an apartment complex in the city and arrested a known drug dealer.

Gardaí arrested the 32-year-old man when he collected a parcel, delivered from Cork Airport, at the complex.

The Irish Examiner understands that three different substances have been detected in the haul:

* PVP, a synthetic stimulant similar to MDPV, a substance which mimics cocaine and was formerly sold in ‘bath salts’ in head shops here;

* Butylone, a synthetic stimulant and psychedelic drug. A tiny amount of this drug, worth just €745, was seized in 2011;

* Flephedrone, a synthetic drug like cocaine and amphetamine. Over 1kg of this was seized last year.

The seizure was the result of an intelligence operation by the Garda National Drugs Unit, the Waterford divisional drugs unit, and the customs service.

These substances can be bought online from China for around €1,000-€1,600 per kilogramme. Given a purchase price of €18,000 to €30,000 for the 18kg seized, the potential profit from street sales is massive.

Garda sources stress that the effects of these synthetic drugs are not well known.

The man in custody, who is well known to drug detectives in the city, was detained under the Drug Trafficking Act.