Gardaí raid cannabis factory in organised crime clampdown

GARDAÍ yesterday busted another Asian-run cannabis factory as part of an operation into organised crime involving a Dublin gang.

Following the seizure of €120,000 worth of cannabis plants at a remote house in Co Meath, gardaí are examining links between Chinese and Vietnamese criminals with a well-known north Dublin drug trafficking network.

This outfit is being targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), whose work led to the discovery of the factory yesterday.

The investigation will feed into a wider operation being carried out by the Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU) into the emergence of sophisticated cannabis plant factories across the country.

Between July and September, the GNDU and local drug units uncovered large-scale cannabis plant operations in counties Monaghan, Roscommon, Longford and Dublin.

Some of these operations were joint-initiatives with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which also uncovered similar facilities.

In most of these cases, people of Chinese and Vietnamese nationality were arrested.

In yesterday’s operation, two Chinese people were arrested at the house in Grennan, Drumcondrath.

A garda spokesman said it was an ongoing operation targeting “organised criminal activity in the North Dublin and Meath areas,” involving the CAB and Navan Garda Station.

“During the course of the search a sophisticated cannabis cultivation operation was discovered and in excess of 400 cannabis plants were seized. This seizure has a potential street value of €120,000 pending a forensic examination,” he said.

He said the two people arrested, aged in their 40s, were being detained under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act

Meanwhile, in a separate operation, gardaí uncovered a cannabis-growing facility in a raid on a house in Bray, Co Wicklow.

Gardaí from Bray Drug Unit raided the house in the Fassaroe estate at 10.30pm on Monday.

Detectives found 100 cannabis plants in the attic of the house, which if cultivated would have an estimated street value of up to €18,000 to €20,000.

The attic had all the equipment of modern cultivation, including lighting, heat lamps and irrigation systems.

A man and a woman, aged in their 20s, were arrested. Both are from the local area.

They were taken to Bray Garda Station and detained under the Drug Trafficking Act, which allows for a maximum possible detention period of seven days.