Gardaí have arrested two men and seized cannabis vapes and cannabis edibles, or gummies, valued at about €2 million.
A series of searches was carried out after gardaí became aware of retail premises, including vaping shops, selling illegal cannabis products.
Over two days of searching, last Thursday and Wednesday of this week, a large team of gardaí, led by the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, searched five business premises and two houses in Castlebar, Longford, Drogheda and Carlow.
The raids resulted in the seizure of “substantial quantities of cannabis-infused jellies, cannabis oil-infused vapes and ‘reefer’ cigarettes containing HHC and THC”.
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“As part of this investigation, two men – aged in their 30s – were arrested in Mayo and Longford and detained under section 2 of Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996, at Garda stations in the midlands,” the Garda said.
One of the men has since been released without charge, following questioning, and a file on the case is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The operation involved personnel from the bureau, Customs Revenue Service, and Garda drugs units based in Longford, Mayo, Roscommon, Kildare and Drogheda.
The intelligence resulting in the searches came from Operation Tara, which was established to tackle drug trafficking networks at local, national and international level, involved in the importation, cultivation and distribution of drugs.
Some of the vapes seized contained hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) – a semi-synthetic cannabinoid. Gardaí said some Health Service Executive case studies confirmed people vaping HHC had “experienced psychotic episodes”.
