Messages on a man’s phone showed that he was not only a drug dealer but was also involved in collecting drug debts, a judge has said.

Four people arrested and charged in connection with an alleged cocaine extraction laboratory will remain in Garda custody ahead of a court date next week.

A judge said one would want to be “blind, deaf, and dumb” not to conclude that texts to and from a man in Dunmanway, Co Cork, were evidence of drug dealing.

Gardaí witnessed a drug dealer getting into a car belonging to a Polish criminal gang and buying a batch of cannabis herb and yesterday the two Polish men faced sentencing in court.