Three people arrested as gardaí seize over €100,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis

James Cox

Three people were arrested as gardaí seized over €100,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis in Co Sligo on Monday.

As part of an ongoing operation targeting the sale and supply of drugs in the area, gardaí carried out a search under warrant of two residences in Sligo on Monday.

Members of Sligo/Leitrim Divisional Drugs Unit, assisted by the Armed Support Unit, searched a property in the town and seized suspected cocaine with an estimated street value of €70,000, cannabis with a value of €12,900 and just under €20,000 in cash.

A woman (30s) and a man (40s) were arrested at the scene and detained at a station in the Garda North Western Region under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996.

In a follow-up search at a residential property in Gurteen, Co Sligo, cannabis with an estimated street value of €20,000 and cash totalling €7,350 was seized.

A man (50s) was arrested and detained at a station in the Garda North Western Region under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996.

All three have since been charged and are due to appear before Tubbercurry District Court on Wednesday.

The drugs will be sent to Forensic Science Ireland for analysis.

Investigations are ongoing, gardaí said.

The seizure forms part of Operation Tara, an enhanced national anti-drugs strategy launched by the Garda Commissioner in July 2021.

Operation Tara aims to "disrupt, dismantle, and prosecute drug trafficking networks at all levels — international, national, and local — involved in the importation, distribution, cultivation, production, and local sale and supply of controlled drugs".