GARDAÍ ARE questioning two men following the seizure of heroin with an estimated street value of almost €1 million. A small amount of cocaine was also seized and gardaí confiscated a number of vehicles during the investigation in north Dublin.
The planned search operation began in Santry, north Dublin, on Monday afternoon when a vehicle in an underground car park was searched by gardaí from the drugs unit in Pearse Street Garda station in Dublin’s south inner city.
Gardaí found a large quantity of heroin in the vehicle valued at about €900,000. One man was arrested and four cars parked in the car park of the apartment and commercial development were also seized.
Gardaí believe the vehicles were to be used to transport the heroin to street dealers. A man was arrested at the scene as he was in the process of taking some of the drugs from one of the cars.
In a follow-up operation, a house at the Clare Hall housing estate in Coolock was also searched as was an address in north county Dublin. A second man was arrested at the address in north county Dublin. A small quantity of heroin and a quantity of cocaine were found during the follow up searches. The arrested men are aged 38 and 35.
One of the men in custody was was one of three people arrested last August when gardaí found heroin, valium and cash with a combined value of just over €500,000 at two locations, in Dublin’s north inner city and in north Co Dublin.
One of the other men arrested on that occasion – Sean Cloherty (27) from Glasnevin, Dublin – was shot dead last November and his killing is believed to be linked to last August’s seizure.
Intelligence on the movement of the drugs seized on Monday was gathered by the Pearse Street drug unit last week and a surveillance operation was put in place on the underground car park in Santry.
When one of the suspects went to move the drugs, gardaí moved in and arrested him and then the follow-up operation swung into action.
The arrested men, one of whom is a taxi driver, are both being questioned at Pearse Street Garda station. They are being detained under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act and can be held without charge for up to seven days. The cars seized from the car park in Santry have been taken for a forensic examination by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.
Monday’s operation is the latest in a series of recent drugs seizures in which large quantities of heroin have been found.
A consignment of the drug valued at about €8 million was found in Bayside, in north Dublin last month. In Cavan town, also in March, heroin valued at €200,000 was found in a house while €130,000 worth of the drug was found in Limerick in an unrelated operation.