Two arrested following €500,000 cocaine haul

TWO men in their 30s are in custody at Clondalkin and Ballyfermot garda stations following the seizure of cocaine potentially worth over €500,000 in Dublin.

The raid at a house in Cherry Orchard was part of a planned operation yesterday afternoon by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU)

The drugs now have to be forensically examined to determine the exact quantity but it’s believed there could be up to eight kilogrammes in the house.

The men are being detained under the Drug Trafficking Act and may be held for up to seven days.

Earlier this week, gardaí in Dublin landed their biggest haul of cocaine in over a year. Up to 25 kilos of the drug, worth €3.5 million, were seized from what is understood to be a west African gang working with Irish drug traders.

Two Dublin men and one Nigerian national were questioned after they were arrested with the cache.

Gardaí said two of the men from Dublin’s north inner city were well known to the authorities for their suspected involvement in previous drug operations.

A GNDU source admitted joint operations between west African traffickers and Irish dealers was a “developing trend” in recent times.

The trio were apprehended when the van they were travelling in was intercepted on the North Strand in Dublin.

It is believed the cocaine originated in South America and was shipped to Dublin via Lagos in Nigeria and Amsterdam in Holland.

Further evidence of the growing cocaine epidemic threatening the country came on Wednesday when families of cocaine addicts took to the streets outside the Dáil to protest at the Government’s failure to implement the National Drugs Strategy.