BREAKING: Kilkenny link to seven-figure drug seizure as four arrested
Operation Tara: A number of searches took place resulting in the arrest of four males aged in their 20s, 40s, and 60s
An intelligence led operation (under Operation Tara) was conducted yesterday by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau in collaboration with regional garda units from the Northwestern Region, Eastern Region and the Dublin Metropolitan Region targeting regional drug trafficking networks.
A number of searches took place resulting in the arrest of four males aged in their 20s, 40s, and 60s, following the seizure of a number of vehicles along with cocaine with an estimated street value of €1.6 million, diamorphine with an estimated street value of €529,000, a small quantity of psilocin (magic mushrooms), and cash totalling €34,300.
Two of these males have been charged with drug trafficking and money laundering offences and have appeared before Kilkenny District Court and the Criminal Courts of Justice District Court.
The detention of the other two males is ongoing at garda stations in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.
Investigations are ongoing.
This seizure forms part of Operation Tara, an enhanced national anti-drugs strategy, which was launched by the Garda Commissioner in July 2021.
The focus of Operation Tara is to disrupt, dismantle and prosecute drug trafficking networks, at all levels - international, national, local - involved in the importation, distribution, cultivation, production, local sale and supply of controlled drugs.