Gardai are seeking to re-arrest three suspects released after being questioned in connection with the seizure of cannabis worth £3 million in Dublin last week. Five men walked free from Dublin District Court on Tuesday after Judge William Earley ordered their release. They were among six men arrested last Thursday after a drugs raid in Tallaght. The sixth was granted bail on Tuesday to appear next week. Last night, two of the five had been re-arrested and gardai sought to arrest the other three.
Publicity surrounding the re lease of the men proved embarrassing for the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, on the day his Criminal Law Bill, with its new powers to deal with drug offences, was published.
The Minister said he and his Department were "entirely blameless" and denied there were flaws in the legislation under which the men had been arrested.
But opposition parties claimed he should accept responsibility for "the blunders" in the administration of justice. According to the Fine Gael spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, the releases reflected Mr O'Donoghue's failure to ensure proper procedures in bringing accused people before the courts.
"Coming on the heels of the unauthorised release recently of a person charged with possession of £1.5 million of cannabis, and the utter chaos over the validity of court clerk appointments, it is quite clear that the Minister has failed miserably to come to grips with the fundamentals of his Department," Mr Higgins said.
In response, Mr O'Donoghue said last night it was disturbing that Mr O'Higgins had sought to make the actions of a constitutionally independent judiciary a matter of political controversy. This approach to the operations of the institutions of the State was unprecedented. He added that if Mr O'Higgins had political charges to make against him, he should clarify what these were and what action had been open to him on the issue in which he had allegedly failed to take action.
While gardai would not comment officially last night, it is understood senior officers were angry with the development. A senior garda said the arrests were "totally correct". All six were arrested last Thursday under the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act 1996, which grants new powers to detain suspects for seven days without charge. Suspects can be detained for the first 48 hours by order of a senior officer. Gardai must then apply to a judge nominated by the president of the district court to extend the detention.
On Saturday Judge Desmond Windle extended their detention. But it emerged that the president of the district court, Judge Peter Smithwick, and Judge Thelma King were the only two Dublin judges empowered to grant extensions under the Act.