A MAJOR heroin supply network between Dublin and Liverpool has been broken by undercover work led by the Garda National Drugs Unit, it emerged last night.
Three men from Liverpool, one said to be a leading figure in the drugs underworld, were arrested by gardai at the North Wall at 3 p.m. yesterday. The three are understood to have links with north Dublin criminals and had visited Dublin before.
The arrests follow one of the largest single seizures of heroin by gardai in north inner Dublin.
A car they were travelling in was searched and more than 1.5 kilos of heroin found. The drug has a street value of more than £1 million.
The heroin was in three packages hidden in the car which is believed to have come into the country via the Liverpool to Dublin ferry.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, congratulated the Garda National Drugs Unit and the other units involved saying the seizure resulted from "painstaking intelligence gathering and is an example of good police work".
The amount of heroin recovered is greater than the total amount of the drug seized by the Garda in 1993 and more than the total amount seized in 1991 and 1992 put together.
Heroin abuse has been rising significantly in Dublin in the past two years and last year a total of more than four kilos was seized in dozens of Garda operations. It is estimated there are around 5,000 heroin abusers in the city.
The drug fetches around £400 per gramme, but a gramme is "cut" by dealers into smaller amounts and eventually sold at about twice this value.
Yesterday's seizure and arrests follow a surveillance and undercover operation "targeting the established links between Dublin criminals and UK criminals", a senior Garda source said last night.
He added: "These people have been supplying the Dublin market". The Garda operation had been going on "for weeks".