Gardaí in Cork were last night continuing to question a 27-year-old Cork city man following the discovery of a cocaine-mixing factory and drugs with a street value conservatively estimated at around €1 million.
Officers from the Cork City Divisional Drugs Squad questioned the man yesterday at the Bridewell Garda station following his arrest at the cocaine-mixing plant at a rented apartment at Coppinger Court on Popes Quay in Cork city on Thursday afternoon.
The man, from the Rochestown area, was caught when gardaí raided the premises at around 4pm and recovered 8kg of cocaine and a further 20kg of a white crystalline power believed to be mannitol (used as a mixing agent).
According to Garda sources, mannitol is usually added to cocaine at a ratio of 3:2.
However, it can be added at a ratio as high as 5:2, allowing drug dealers to more than double the value of a cocaine shipment when selling it on to others.
Officers also recovered a pistol with a full magazine, as well as a large amount of equipment for mixing cocaine, including weighing scales, special microwaves, drying equipment, presses and plastic wrapping for drug packaging.
"This is a significant blow to the operations of a major drugs gang - it's not simply that we seized a large quantity of drugs but we've actually succeeded in dismantling their production facility here in Cork whereby they were able to supply their dealers," said one Garda source.
"It was a very sophisticated operation to judge from the quality and amount of equipment that they had assembled at this flat," said the source. He added that the gardaí believe the gang were supplying cocaine not just to Cork city and county but throughout Munster.