Gardai are urging farmers and vets to be vigilant following the theft of £126,000 worth of animal pharmaceutical products from a warehouse in Ballyfermot, Dublin. The assorted goods are likely to be offered for resale at reduced prices and may be passed off soon at animal marts around the Republic or in the North.
The products include antibiotics for cattle, sheep and pigs, five-litre drums of worm drench and vitamin supplements. They were imported from the North and are sold under various brand names including Duphapen, Streptomycin, Duphapenstrep and Duphalite.
The goods were stolen from the Interchem Animal Health warehouse in Cherry Orchard Industrial Estate, Ballyfermot, last Sunday. The robbers disabled the warehouse alarm while they loaded 80 pallets of goods into a van.
Det Sgt Gabriel O'Gara, of Ballyfermot Garda station, said the stolen products were selected from a variety of other goods in store, which suggested that they were stolen to order. "The product is for a very specialised business, and the quantity of the stuff taken and the method of going into the premises and selecting it from other products would indicate that there was a market there for them already."
Det Sgt O'Gara advised members of the farming community and the veterinary trade who were offered such goods from unusual sources to contact local gardai or the detective unit at Ballyfermot station.
A stolen silver Mazda van which gardai believe was used in the theft has been recovered.