Man gets 10 years for drugs stash

A man on temporary release from a prison sentence for the most serious type of drugs crime was caught running from a car with a stash of amphetamines and cannabis in a sports bag.

The car, driven by another man, was the subject of an extensive Garda surveillance operation and came crashing to a halt a few miles from Horse and Jockey on the main Cork to Dublin Road after a garda pursuit. Detective Garda Kathleen Pearse told the court yesterday Thomas McCarthy, aged 33, from 7 Oakfield Drive, Thurles, Co Tipperary, fled the car with the drugs stash.

McCarthy jumped over a crash barrier and down a steep embankment discarding the drugs as he fled.