Gardaí seize €600,000 worth of drugs

GARDAÍ believe they have severely dented the operations of a significant drug gang following the seizure of over €600,000 worth of cannabis and cocaine in Cork.

Acting on intelligence, members of the Cork City Divisional Drugs Squad stopped a car outside the city and found €384,000 of cannabis in the vehicle.

The driver, who is in his 30s and originally from the northside of the city, was arrested after the discovery at Sallybrook, Glanmire, at about 3pm on Monday.

The man, who was alone in the car, had been driving toward the city when he was stopped.

He has been detained at Cobh Garda station under section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1996.

The Cork City Divisional Drugs Squad, aided by gardaí from Cobh, then raided a house at Fota Rock, in Carrigtwohill, which the man “had an association with”. There they found €210,000 worth of cannabis and €12,000 worth of cocaine.

No further arrests were made at the house.

The total seizure amounted to €606,000 which is the second largest seizure in the county this year.

However, it is dwarfed by the one in Bartlemy, near Fermoy, on October 13, when €5 million of cocaine was seized by detectives after an international operation.

The drugs were found in a lock-up and several people were arrested.

A senior Garda source said the latest seizure was part of an ongoing investigation into drug trafficking in the Cork region. He said gardaí were working on the presumption that the drugs were destined for the Christmas market in Cork.

“We regard this as a significant seizure and it will hopefully have disrupted one of the networks supplying the Cork region,” the source said.

The drugs will be analysed at Garda headquarters in Dublin.