Shock over discovery of €17,500 cocaine haul at school

THE discovery of €17,500 worth of cocaine in a primary school has horrified teachers and parents.

A package of the highly addictive drug was discovered by gardaí at the back of Our Lady of Mercy Primary School, on Pearse Road, in Sligo.

Drug dealers who were under surveillance by the local drugs division, are believed to have trafficked the cocaine from the North. They threw the drugs over the back wall of the school into a concrete yard at night. Detectives seized the drugs at 12.30am.

Staff at the Mercy Primary School, which caters for special needs children, were in shock yesterday.

School principal Mary Finan said: “We are shocked. Someone was seen leaving a brown package over the wall of our school. They are fairly sure that it is cocaine. [I was] absolutely stunned — frightened for the staff, parents and children,” she added.

The school has 515 pupils and 60 staff. The principal said she worried that pupils could have interfered with the cocaine, if it had remained on the grounds until the morning.

“Imagine if a child had picked that up this morning. We can’t believe it. Obviously it is very distressing. We are very security conscious here, our gates are always locked,” she said.

Gardaí have been monitoring criminal activity in Sligo under Operation Anvil since last May, according to local Garda Inspector Paul Cuttle.

In follow-up investigations yesterday, gardaí seized a seven-seater people carrier. Three young men, all in their 20s, were arrested, searched and released yesterday. One had an address in Donegal, while the other two were from the North.