A 13-year battle over a chocolate teacake was finally settled in the highest court in the land today.

A South African mother-of-eight who acted as a drugs mule to bring over €130,000 worth of herbal cannabis into Cork was sentenced to 10 years today with the last four years suspended.

Republican paramilitaries opposed to the peace process have issued a chilling threat to a group of civil servants, it was revealed today.

WHEN the prosecution’s forensic expert Geraldine O’Neill recounted how she examined the hall-marked cocaine recovered from Dunlough Bay it was possible to make different calculations about the street value of the bales which had been floating in the Atlantic.

IT was a sophisticated international smuggling racket that came to grief off the coast of Ireland because someone didn’t know the difference between diesel and petrol.

A mother who is serving a ten-year sentence has forfeited €60,000 to the State as the proceeds of drug dealing.

SOME "idiot" put diesel instead of petrol into the powerful engines on the rib boat found at the scene of the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the state, a jury was told.

Diesel instead of petrol was put into the powerful engines on the RIB boat that was found at the scene of the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the state, the expert who examined the wreckage said today.

A South African drug mule who believed he had swallowed pellets containing gold and was carrying a briefcase of confidential documents has been given an four year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A drugs "mule" has today been sentenced to 10 years in jail by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for smuggling almost €75,000 worth of cocaine into the country.

A farmer has been acquitted at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on charges of evading excise duty on cider he made and sold in farmers' markets.

A mother and daughter from Surinam who were living "in dire poverty" in Holland have been jailed for four years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for possession of cocaine valued over €106,000.

A customs officer has denied he was "selective" in laws he enforced when investigating the case of a north county businessman charged with failing to pay tax on cider he produced and sold in farmers' markets.

A north county businessman has gone on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court charged with failing to pay tax on cider he produced on his farm and sold in farmers’ markets.

A Belgian national admitted today that he unlawfully imported over €100,000 worth of cocaine into Cork Airport last May.

A Surinam businessman who swallowed 100 pellets of cocaine to repay a debt loan to criminals has been given a seven year sentence by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A Meath man who was told his €1,300 drug debt would be "cleared" if he went to Madrid to collect a package has been sentenced to four years for bringing cocaine into Ireland.

Cigarettes worth more than €700,000 were seized in Dublin and Louth, a Customs and Excise spokesman revealed tonight.

Cigarettes worth more than €700,000 were seized in Dublin and Louth, a Customs and Excise spokesman revealed last night.

A man who failed to make tax returns to the Revenue Commissioners has been remanded for sentence next month at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

ILLEGAL dumping of waste fuel has cost a local authority an estimated €1.1 million.

A BRITISH agent who spied on the IRA was being questioned last night about two murders in the North.

THE number of people killed on roads in Cork, Kerry and Limerick this year is nearly double that for the comparative period for 2005.

Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric has confirmed new co-owner Alexandre Gaydamak will become a director of the club next week after investing £20m (€29m) in Pompey.

A mother who was caught with cannabis resin valued almost €400,000 has been jailed for 10 years after Judge Frank O’Donnell said he could not find any circumstance that would justify imposing a lesser sentence.

An Irish businessman wept today after a jury unanimously acquitted him of a £14m (€20m) British VAT fraud.

Three people were still being questioned today by police probing money laundering linked to illegal dumping in Northern Ireland.

Four people were arrested in Northern Ireland today in connected an alleged £2m (€2.88m) fuel fraud.

Customs officials have charged an Armagh man with laundering funds from fuel fraud in the North.

TOP golfer Garth McGimpsey, who has been cleared of any link to a drugs seizure, claimed yesterday he may have been the victim of a set-up.

Top Irish golfer Garth McGimpsey, who has been cleared of any link to a drugs seizure, claimed today he may have been the victim of a set-up.

Officials at the Jockey Club are keenly awaiting tomorrow’s The Money Programme in the wake of controversial comments made by Ladbrokes chief executive Chris Bell.

British customs officers seized more than 60,000 litres of illegal fuel from filling stations along the Northern Ireland border, they said tonight.

The detective heading the Omagh bomb investigation was challenged today to question a former spy who allegedly warned police a terrorist attack was planned.

Nine people were questioned today as part of a bid to smash a counterfeit cigarette smuggling operation from the Far East into the UK.

BRITISH police were yesterday assessing more than US$6 billion (€5.5bn) worth of suspect US bonds seized with a hoard of drugs and €10 million of assets by officers investigating a Colombian drugs and money cartel.

Children are being used by organised syndicates smuggling huge amounts of cigarettes into Northern Ireland, it was revealed tonight.

A 39-year-old lorry driver has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving following an horrific road accident in Co Antrim, police said today.

Cocaine is fast becoming the drug of choice in Ireland. Cormac O'Keeffe charts the rise of a drug that was once the preserve of the rich and famous

A new initiative to reduce red tape, ease the burden of regulation on businesses and track down firms which regularly break the law in Northern Ireland was launched today.

More than half the petrol stations in Northern Ireland are selling smuggled fuel, according to Britain's National Audit Office.

There have been two separate drugs seizures at Dublin Airport today.