Gardaí in Cork believe they have broken up a major cocaine distribution operation following the seizure of €500,000 worth of the drug and the arrest of a man at a cocaine-mixing factory in the city yesterday.
Officers from the Cork City Divisional Drugs Squad made the seizure when they raided an apartment on the Commons Road on the city's northside at around 1am yesterday and found a 25-year- old man involved in mixing large quantities of cocaine.
Detectives arrested the man, who is from the Dublin Hill area of the city, and recovered 7kg of cocaine along with 12 kg of mixing agent. They also seized compressors, mixing machinery, vacuum packers, weighing scales, knives and medical gloves.
According to one Garda source, the cocaine appeared to be of high quality and if added to the mixing agents could have had a street value of €1 million.
Gardaí believe the drug was intended for sale in the Cork area.
The man was arrested at about 2am under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drugs Trafficking Act which allows gardaí to detain suspects for up to seven days. He was brought to Gurranebraher Garda station for questioning.
Gardaí later carried out a follow-up search of a house in the Dublin Hill area and recovered cash believed to be in excess of €50,000. Both the cash, drugs and mixing equipment were taken to Anglesea Street Garda station for forensic examination.
A sample of both the drugs and the mixing agent was later sent to Dublin for analysis.
"This was a very organised, very elaborate operation, with a lot of mixing and other equipment necessary to produce a substantial supply of product," said a Garda source, adding that gardaí believe the operation had been in existence for several months.
Yesterday morning's raid followed lengthy intelligence-gathering by the Cork City Divisional Drugs Squad. However, gardaí are still trying to establish how the cocaine was brought to Cork.