Costume drama at Customs over €500,000 cocaine haul

THERE have been many modern versions of La Traviata, Giuseppe Verdi’s seminal opera of love and loss. Not even the most daring producer, though, has ever dreamed of showing any of the characters snorting cocaine.

It might be possible to do so, considering the opera is an ode to excess and the drug in question has been found hidden among a consignment of theatrical costumes bound for Dublin.

The plot of Traviata shows characters indulging in high living and wayward conduct. It is almost as strange as the real drama that unfolded when cocaine with a street value of more than €500,000 was seized by British customs in one of three trucks delivering theatrical sets to Dublin for Opera Ireland’s production of the opera.