Woman held after seizure of cocaine worth €200,000

Gardaí were last night questioning a woman after cocaine valued at about €200,000 was seized

Gardaí were last night questioning a woman after cocaine valued at about €200,000 was seized. Conor Lally,Crime Correspondent, reports

The arrest came following its arrival by air freight from west Africa and then by courier to an address in Drogheda, Co Louth.

The drugs were discovered concealed in a box of pot noodles and it is the latest in a growing number of drug consignments being smuggled into Ireland from Africa.

The woman being questioned last night is a 28-year-old Cameroon national. She was arrested at an address in Drogheda yesterday morning as the package was being unwittingly delivered by a courier company.

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The 2.75kg (just over 6½lb) of cocaine were concealed in small parcels throughout the pot noodles. It entered the State at Dublin airport on Thursday via air freight.

A search by Customs officers was conducted after profiling of freight routes. The Garda National Drugs Unit was called in to assist and the parcel was taken to a freight depot, as is usual, ahead of its planned delivery to an address in Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

However, before it was delivered the intended recipient made contact with the freight company and redirected it to an address in a housing estate in Drogheda.

Gardaí in the Co Louth town tracked the parcel, with the co-operation of their colleagues in Dublin, and moved in as the drugs were being delivered to the address and arrested the woman.

She was taken to Donnybrook Garda station under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act and can be held for up to seven days without charge.

Gardaí were questioning her about the importation of the drugs and on the possible involvement in the illegal operation of anybody else in the State.

The seizure follows the discovery by Customs officers of cannabis valued at about €13 million at Dublin Port on Wednesday. Gardaí believe it originated in South Africa about six weeks ago.

The route of the latest batch of drugs from west Africa to Ireland is growing in popularity with smugglers.

West African countries are becoming increasingly popular with South American drug cartels.

International seizure information in the recent past suggests that drugs are being transported on cargo vessels or catamarans from South America to west Africa, sometimes via the Caribbean or Cape Verde islands.

Once they reach west Africa they are then sent on to their final, usually European, destination, either in large consignments by boat on in smaller batches via air freight.

West Africa has grown in popularity as a staging post because customs checks and other security checks on entry and exit are often lax.

A crackdown on drug smuggling from South to North America has also resulted in cocaine-producing gangs in South America increasingly looking toward Europe rather than the United States for markets where their illegal products can be sold on.