Gardaí seize huge ecstacy haul

Gardaí in Limerick have seized €800,000 worth of ecstasy tablets, it emerged tonight.

Detectives from the local drugs squad and Castleconnell garda station stopped a van at a checkpoint in Goig on the Dublin-Limerick road, at 10am.

They discovered 80,000 ecstasy tablets, worth an estimated €800,000 in the back.

The driver of the van was arrested, along with two other men who were found nearby.

Gardaí in Henry St were tonight questioning the three men under section two of the Drug Trafficking Act. They can be held for up to seven days.

“It’s not the biggest seizure we’ve had but it’s still very significant,” said a Henry St garda spokesman.

In 2001, the Limerick drug squad carried out a surveillance operation on a freight truck which was driven into the grounds of a premises in Meelick.

Officers discovered £1m worth of ecstasy tablets inside five of the 31 boxes of tiles which were unloaded from the truck. The driver was sentenced to eight years imprisonment at Limerick Circuit Court.