The cash was packaged in units of €50 notes and vacuum-packed into a large container.

There has been a 40% drop in the number of gardaí in local drug units in the last eight years — a fall that has continued despite the restarting of recruitment.

Gardaí have intervened in more than 30 potential murders since the Regency Hotel attack late last summer.

Gardai are unable to pursue prosecutions for the sale and possession of some ‘legal highs’ even if they have been linked deaths, according to a senior Garda in the National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.