A heroin dealer who was warned not to think that a district judge was bluffing was ordered to do 220 hours of community service yesterday and a six-month sentence was left hanging over him.

“Did you think I was bluffing?” a district judge asked a drug dealer yesterday about a jail sentence.

Gardaí are planning further undercover anti-heroin operations in Cork City following Operation Emerson which led to the recent arrest of 23 street dealers.

A six-month covert Garda operation targeting heroin dealers in Cork sends out a strong message that offenders will be caught and brought before the courts, senior gardaí said last night.

Gardaí claimed one of the men arrested following an operation targeting heroin dealers was planning an armed robbery of a rural Cork post office.