Michelin-star drug dealer ‘uncorked’

GARDAÍ believe they have found a genuine “Michelin-star drug dealer” who would have put Jamie Oliver and the world’s great brewers to shame with his unusual secret ingredient.

When detectives armed with a search warrant knocked on the man’s door in north Cork, he didn’t use the “F-word”, unlike one celebrity chef. He was “quite courteous” as they discovered two upstairs floors in his house covered with mature cannabis plants, heaters and all the paraphernalia needed to grow them.

The man, who is in his 40s, hardly raised an eyebrow when gardaí discovered his special brand of “cannabis butter” packed in containers.

He also refrained from using expletives when they seized a number of tins of special biscuits – sometimes referred to as “hash cookies”; but he became proudly talkative when gardaí found bottles labelled “Creme de Gras”.

He explained, to the amazement of senior detectives, that he had distilled cannabis leaves and made the illicit hooch out of them.

“In all my years in the Garda, I have never seen anything like this. It was absolutely amazing. The cannabis butter was one thing. It was used to make the biscuits. But the bottles were something else,” a senior garda said.

Detectives and drug squad officers from the Cork North Garda Division, acting on information, raided the house at around 8am last Saturday in the rural Glantane area, north-west of Mallow.

They believe the man was running a veritable cottage industry “for a considerable time” supplying food and drink laced with cannabis to a number of clients.

“We discovered cannabis plants worth around €15,000 in two upstairs bedrooms which were specially adapted for growing, with heat foil, fans etc,” a senior garda said.

The man was arrested and taken to Mallow Garda Station for questioning. He was detained under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. He was released without charge and a file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

Meanwhile, a man and a woman in their 20s have been released without charge in connection with the seizure of an estimated €26,000 worth of cannabis plants in a raid in the Innishannon area of west Cork. A file is to be sent to the DPP.

In Galway a 37-year-old Englishman was arrested yesterday when gardaí swooped on a cannabis factory in the city centre. Gardaí seized cannabis worth 60,000 from the house in the New Road area.