Gardai are co-operating with Belgian police after a massive quantity of drugs was found in an Irish-registered truck near Belgium's border with France.
Belgian police found the truck abandoned with its driver's door open last Friday in a lay-by near the town of Kortrijk. Inside they discovered heroin, amphetamines, cannabis and almost 600,000 ecstasy tablets, with a street value of more than €6 million.
Mr Louis Denecker, Kortrijk's chief prosecutor, told The Irish Times that the police had kept the vehicle under surveillance until Sunday afternoon, but the driver did not return to it. "We think the driver saw the police controlling other vehicles on the road. He was afraid and he left for France or to return to Ireland," he said.
Belgian police believe the truck was travelling from Amsterdam to France, possibly to embark on a ferry to Ireland. Mr Denecker said the police happened on the vehicle by accident during a routine patrol.
"This road is close to the French border, and we have a lot of immigrants trying to go to Sangatte and then to England. So we do controls here every day," he said.
Police became suspicious when they saw the truck parked near a Shell motorway service station.
"There was nobody in the truck, and the door was open. The police found a lot of drugs inside and watched the truck for two days. By Sunday at noon, nobody had come to take this truck," Mr Denecker said.
He expressed satisfaction at the co-operation of the Garda, with which the Belgian police are working through Interpol. But he said it was impossible to say for certain that the driver was Irish. "We don't know. We've found nobody. We're looking," he said.
A Garda spokesman declined to comment on the case, which he described as a matter for the Belgian authorities.
The find follows a number of recent high-profile drugs seizures by gardaí and customs officers. Last month cannabis and cannabis resin worth an estimated €17 million was seized in two related raids at Rathcoole, west Dublin, and Coolock, north Dublin. The previous month, herbal cannabis valued at €15 million was discovered in a container at Dublin Port in the largest such find on record.
Meanwhile, gardaí in south Co Dublin are questioning two men following the seizure of heroin with a street value of around €30,000 at St Anne's Park, Shankill, on Sunday night.