Two men held after gardaí seize €4m cocaine haul

GARDAÍ were yesterday questioning three men in connection with a seizure of cocaine with an estimated street value of up to €4 million.

Detectives attached to the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) made the haul during a search of a house in the Balgaddy area of Clondalkin in west Dublin on Thursday.

Officers confiscated an estimated 400kgs of the drug.

Two men in their 20s and one in his late 30s were arrested at the scene and taken into garda custody at Lucan and Ballyfermot stations.

They were detained under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act, which allows them to be held for up to seven days.

"The substantial seizure follows an investigation into organised crime in the city," said a garda source.

He said the seizure was not connected to a number of seizures by the NBCI in recent months.

On May 6, the NBCI seized 500kgs of cannabis, with an estimated street value of €5m, in Phibsboro in Dublin's north inner city.

The haul, belonging to a major Dublin dealer, was found during a search of van. A man in his 20s was arrested by gardaí.

The dealer is linked to a major Dublin trafficker based in Amsterdam, who has seen a large number of his seizures intercepted.

Last month, the NBCI seized six kilos of heroin in the Baldoyle area of north Dublin one of the biggest seizures of heroin in the last year, with an estimated street value of €2m.

Two men arrested in relation to that were subsequently charged and are currently before the courts.

Thursday's haul follows the seizure of drug-making chemicals in Walkinstown, Dublin, on Wednesday.

Gardaí estimate the chemicals had the potential to make 50 million ecstasy tablets and 2.5 tonnes of amphetamine drugs with a street value of over €500m.