BARRY ROCHE , Southern Correspondent
Gardaí in Cork are to prepare a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions after arresting and questioning a man about a€70,000 drugs seizure in the city over the bank holiday weekend.
Members of the Cork city divisional drugs squad arrested the 33-year-old man when they searched a house in Mahon on Cork’s southside and found a kilo of cocaine on the premises.
The man was arrested at about 10pm on Friday night under drugs trafficking legislation which allows gardai hold suspect for up to seven days.
He was brought to the Bridewell Garda station for questioning about the find and held over night and questioned all day Saturday before being released without charge at 6pm on Saturday evening.
The drugs have been sent to the State laboratory for analysis to establish its purity while gardaí will now prepare a file on the matter on the DPP, said a Garda spokesman.
It’s the second significant drug seizure in Cork over the bank holiday weekend and follows the discovery of €20,000 worth of cannabis herb by gardaí also on Friday night.
The Cork city divisional drugs squad found a kilo of cannabis herb during a search in the Mallow Road area on the city’s northside at about 6pm on Friday night.
Garda technical experts have begun a forensic examination of the drugs for fingerprint and DNA evidence in a bid to try and identify to who hid the drugs.
Gardaí believe the drugs were destined for the local Cork market and investigations are ongoing.
Separately, two men were due in court this morning charged in relation to the seizure of €190,000 worth of drugs at Rosslare port.
Customs officers discovered heroin and amphetamines after a drug dog gave a positive reaction when a van was stopped as it disembarked a ferry from France on Friday.
Steroids, cigarettes, tobacco and alcohol were also seized.
A Garda spokesman said the men were both Lithuanian. One is in his late 30s and the other is in his early 40s. They had been detained under drug-trafficking legislation.