Drug debt may have led to woman’s abduction

A WOMAN who suffered a 48-hour kidnap ordeal may have been the unwitting victim of an underworld drug debt row sparked by a string of recent seizures.

Mother-of-three Helen Judge, snatched from her Kildare home earlier this week, was last night under guard in hospital where she remains under observation.

The 41-year-old was described as being in a stable condition and in good spirits. She was found early yesterday in a severely distressed state in a secluded wood on a mountain in Louth. A team of gardaí from Dundalk and Kildare are involved in the hunt for the kidnap gang. The probe is being co-ordinated by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.