Police announced three men have being arrested over the drug seizure, which they say is a major blow to an organised crime group.
Irish police say they have seized more than €14 million worth of illegal drugs, mostly cocaine, in a major operation in a small town in the country’s midlands.
The swoop in Mountmellick, a community of around 5,000 people mainly known for its Georgian architecture and Quaker lacework, yielded 182kg of cocaine and 4kg of cannabis, which were discovered at a commercial premises.
Another 17kg of narcotics was found in a car in Dublin, along with €25,000 in cash.
According to law enforcement, eight vehicles and drug paraphernalia have been seized and are being examined by forensic analysts. Three men have been arrested and are being detained and questioned under the country’s Drugs Trafficking Act.
“This intelligence-led operation conducted by the Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT) has taken down the main supply network for cocaine and crack cocaine into West Dublin,” said Paul Cleary, assistant commissioner for the police force’s Dublin Metropolitan Region.
“This operation targeting the sourcing, preparation and distribution of substantial quantities of these illicit drugs, stopped them from entering our communities and is another significant blow to an Organised Criminal Group.”
Investigations are said to be ongoing.
Drug-related organised crime has been a subject of increasing public and police attention in Ireland in recent years, with a number of high-profile operations intercepting large shipments of cocaine headed either for the Irish market or to onward sellers in the UK and continental Europe.
Just hours before the results of yesterday’s raid were made public, six men failed in an effort to avoid trial on charges related to a 2.25-tonne, €157m cocaine cargo seized from a Panamanian-flagged ship in Irish waters in September 2023.
The Dutch, Ukrainian, Iranian, and Filipino men were arrested during an operation by the Irish Defence Forces. The ship’s cargo was the largest cocaine haul ever seized in Ireland.
