INVESTIGATIONS ARE ONGOING after Gardaí carried out a major raid over the weekend seizing drugs worth €1.4m.
€643,000 of drugs owned by gangs in Limerick and Clare were recovered by Gardaí on Friday plus a large sum of cash which resulted in the arrests of five people. In a follow up search on Saturday, cocaine was seized with an estimated street value of €779,450. The searches were conducted under Operation Coronation in conjunction with Operation Tara.
On Sunday evening, Gardaí confirmed that a man aged in his fifties that was detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996, in Henry Street Garda Station has been charged in relation to the seizure and is due to appear before Limerick District Court on Monday morning at 10.30a.m. One of the other men, aged in his forties, appeared before a special sitting of Limerick District Court on Saturday evening.
A woman aged in her thirties who was also detained at Henry St Garda Station has been released without charge. A file is to now be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Shortly after 2pm on Friday, Gardaí attached to the Limerick Divisional Drugs Unit, backed up by the Regional Support Unit (RSU) intercepted a car on the R463, at Westbury, situated between Corbally and Ardnacrusha.
Upon searching the car, Gardaí discovered €10,000 worth of suspected cocaine and arrested three males who were travelling in the vehicle. The men were intercepted by armed Gardaí in a dramatic swoop as many witnesses, including motorists, shoppers and walkers, looked on.
In follow-up searches that evening, Gardaí seized more than €406,000 of suspected cocaine, €140,000 of suspected heroin, €45,000 of suspected amphetamine, and €42,852 of suspected diazepam tablets and a man and a woman were also arrested. Two of the men were released from custody with files to prepared for the DPP.
According to reports, Gardaí are of the understanding that the drugs and cash were being moved and stored for drug gangs based in Limerick City and Ennis.
