GARDAÍ AND Revenue’s Customs officers believe they have disrupted the activities of an international drugs gang operating in the Republic following one of the biggest seizures of drugs so far this year.
The latest seized consignment of cannabis, which has an estimated street value of €1.7 million, had been imported from Spain by a gang of Irish criminals working with their contacts from mainland Europe.
A 33-year-old man from Lithuania was arrested in relation to the seizure and was being questioned at Store Street Garda station in Dublin’s north inner city under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act.
The drugs were detected in a truck that had arrived in Dublin Port from Spain on Monday.
A major surveillance operation was put in place by the Garda and Customs and the vehicle was followed as it drove out of the port, across the city and on to the M9.
It was stopped on the M9 in Co Kildare on Monday evening where the driver was questioned and arrested.
The truck was then driven back to Dublin Port and underwent a full search by the joint Customs-Garda team. Almost 300kg of cannabis herb and a small amount of less than 10kg of cannabis resin was found in the truck.
Gardaí are now trying to establish the role of the Lithuanian man in the smuggling operation and are trying to assess whom he was working for in Ireland and if he knew what was in the truck.
The drugs haul had been labelled as, and concealed in, a quantity of tiles from Spain.
Gardaí are liaising with their colleagues in Spain to try to identify the origins of the drugs. The Garda element of the operation was led by the Garda National Drugs Unit.
Meanwhile drugs to the value of €800,000 were found after a house search in Ashbourne, Co Meath yesterday. Two men aged in their 30s arrested at the scene were last night being held at Kells Garda Station.
