Drugs worth €2m seized in two raids

Four people are in custody after gardaí seized drugs worth an estimated €2m in separate raids in Co Donegal and Co Cork today.

Cannabis plants with a value of €1.6 million were seized in a raid on an "elaborate" drug cultivation operation in Laghey, Co Donegal. Two men were arrested.

Gardaí from Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, assisted by members of the Garda National Drugs Unit discovered an estimated 2,000 cannabis plants at the premises at Trummon, Laghey. Gardaí described the cannabis growing operation as "elaborate".

One man in his 30's and another in his 40's were arrested at the scene and both are are being questioned at Ballyshannon Garda Station under Section 2 Criminal Justice ( Drug Trafficking) Act 1996.

In Cork, gardaí are continuing to question a Chinese man and woman arrested in city this morning following the discovery by customs officers of an estimated €400,000 worth of drugs.

The duo were arrested at a house in the Greenmount area on Cork’s southside by gardaí at around 11am after they were called to the scene by Customs officers who were investigating cigarette smuggling.

The Customs investigation followed the detection by customs officers of some 8,000 cigarettes at the Portlaoise Mail Centre and a controlled delivery of the cigarettes was undertaken to the Cork address by customs officers.

The cigarettes, which were Eight brand cigarettes, had originated in China and custom officers estimated that they had a retail value of €3,100 with a further potential loss to the exchequer of €2,724.

Upon making the controlled delivery to the house in Greenmount, customs officers searched the two story terraced house and found 40 bags each containing an estimated 1,000 ecstasy tablets hidden in an upstairs bedroom.

Customs officers immediately alerted gardaí who arrested a 31-year-old Chinese man and a 30-year-old Chinese woman and brought them to the Bridewell Garda Station for questioning about the drugs.

The two Chinese nationals were arrested under Drugs Trafficking legislation which allows gardaí hold suspects for up to seven days and gardaí are carrying out inquiries to establish how long the pair had been in the country and what their official status was.

Gardaí also confirmed this evening that they believe the ecstasy tablets were destined for the local Cork market while they also confirmed a small cannabis growhouse had been found at the house but they said it contained just two plants and was not a signficant find.