Gardaí seize drugs worth e1m in major Cork bust

GARDAÍ last night said they have dealt a major blow to a Cork-based drugs gang after seizing €1 million worth of drugs in the city over the weekend.

The haul included seven kilos of cocaine - one of the largest cocaine seizures in Munster this year.

Four people arrested for questioning in connection with Saturday’s raid were released yesterday and a file was being prepared for the DPP last night.

Anglesea Street-based drug squad officers seized seven kilos of cocaine, 10 kilos of cannabis resin and a large quantity of ecstasy tablets in the Wilton and Rathpeacon areas on Saturday afternoon.

Following a ten-day surveillance operation, officers swooped on a man outside the High Street shopping centre.

They found half a kilo of cocaine in his possession.

They also found 10 kilos of cannabis resin in a car parked in nearby Wilton Shopping Centre. Two people were arrested.

Gardaí later found six kilos of cocaine and 12,000 ecstasy pills in a follow-up search of a house at Rathpeacon. Two more people were arrested.

All four - three males and one female - are aged in their 30s and come from the Cork area.

They were detained in Mayfield and Togher Garda Stations under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act.

Two were released yesterday morning. The other two were released during the afternoon.

“This seizure is a definite blow to their supply mechanism. It comes at the end of a successful surveillance operation into which considerable resources were put,” a garda spokesman said.

“These were very significant players involved at the top end of the business.”

Up to €15m worth of drugs have been seized in Cork in 2004, including a €6m haul earlier this year.

On January 16, a van travelling in Mountrath, Co Laois on route to Cork was stopped by gardaí.

Nearly 500,000 ecstasy tablets with a street value of €6 million were discovered.