Three held over airport drugs finds

Two women and a man were arrested after customs seized almost €500,000 of drugs at Dublin Airport.

In separate searches, officers recovered 20 kilos of herbal cannabis in a set of luggage, two kilos of cocaine in a false suitcase bottom and another one kilo of cocaine in shoes.

Two South African women were detained yesterday.

A 24-year-old who had flown from Johannesburg, through both Athens and Brussels, was held over the cannabis seizure while the 26-year-old flew from Santiago in Chile through Madrid.

A 40-year-old Portuguese man was taken into custody today after cocaine worth €70,000 was found in the soles of a pair of trainers.

He arrived in Dublin off a flight from Dhaka in Senegal, west Africa.

Officials said the three drugs finds were not related.

Customs teams at the airport led the searches supported by the Santry and national Garda drugs units and the Garda National Immigration Bureau.

All three were detained under section two of the Drug Trafficking Act 1996.