Gardaí make second seizure at drug distribution centre

GARDAÍ have uncovered a wholesale cocaine distribution centre following a second seizure at the same location in a week.

Gardaí in Coolock, north Dublin, raided a local Traveller camp on Saturday and found 8kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value of about €560,000.

A week earlier, the gardaí recovered 21kg at the same site, a haul worth about €1.5 million.

Officers believe the consignment was the property of a well-known extended Traveller family.

They have properties in the Grove Lane site — where a number of other, innocent, families live.

“These are serious players in the market, what you would call wholesale distributors,” said a Garda source.

Gardaí said drug searches were carried out in a number of premises on Grove Lane in last weekend’s raids.

Officers also recovered a quantity of cash and a small amount of assorted ammunition. No arrests were made.

In the previous weekend’s raids, gardaí found 14kg and 7kg of cocaine in two vacant houses at the site. They also found a small amount of cocaine and heroin, worth €2,200 in one of two mobile homes searched, along with a magazine and ammunition for a firearm.

Gardaí said the gang leaders had gone to ground but expressed confidence arrests would be made.

The 29kg seized represent a financial blow to the gang, who are likely to owe money to their own suppliers.

The searches are part of Operation Thaw, which was set up in the area last November to combat drug dealing, at wholesale and street level, and to put in place a high-profile Garda presence on the ground in Darndale.

Local groups have noticed an increase in the amount of cocaine available and a rise in threats and violence by drug dealers on addicts, who owe money, and their families.