Cocaine with a street value estimated between €11 million and €13 million was seized in three separate Garda and Customs and Excise operations in Dublin yesterday.
The seizures, coupled with the arrest of the leader of an international Irish-led cocaine gang in Spain last week, represent a major blow to those in the Republic's rapidly growing cocaine trade.
At about 2 p.m. yesterday gardaí stopped a car on the Naas Road in Co Dublin. The car was searched, and 20kg of pure cocaine was recovered. In a follow-up operation, gardaí searched a warehouse near the Red Cow Inn on the Naas Road, where they found a further consignment of the drug weighing between 30kg and 40kg. The Garda Press Office last night valued the two hauls at €10 million.
The man driving the car which was stopped on the Naas Road was arrested and was being questioned at Clondalkin Garda station last night under Section 2 of the Drugs Trafficking Act. He can be held without charge for a maximum of seven days. The man is in his 30s and is known to gardaí. He is originally from Dublin's south inner city.
Gardaí believe that the drugs which were seized yesterday belonged to a Dublin gang headed by a member of a well-known family from Drimnagh.
In a separate incident yesterday, cocaine with an estimated street value of €1 million was seized at Dublin Airport. Customs officers found the drug in a suitcase carried by a Nigerian man who had just entered the State from South Africa. The man, who has an address in Ireland, was being questioned at Santry Garda station last night.
Last Friday an Irishman was arrested in Alicante in the south of Spain. The Dublin man is thought to be the leader of an international crime gang which gardaí believe has been shipping into Ireland a very significant amount of the cocaine being offered for sale in the Republic.
