Gardaí were last night continuing to question a 32-year-old man after they and Customs officers in Waterford recovered €800,000 worth of a synthetic drug imported from China.
Gardaí from the Garda National Drugs Unit and the Waterford Divisional Drugs Unit, along with Customs officers seized nine kilos of the drug during a controlled delivery of a package which arrived into Cork Airport from China.
Gardaí arrested the man at O’Connell Street in Waterford and, in a follow-up operation, seized a further 14 kilos of the drug when they searched the man’s flat at Penrose Lane with the total haul having an estimated street value of €813,000.
The man was detained under section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996, which allows detention for up to a period of seven days while the drugs have been sent to the State Laboratory for analysis.
Gardaí were reluctant to comment on the type of drugs seized pending the results of analysis, but early indications suggest it is not the mixture of MDMA and PMMA suspected of being responsible for the deaths of two young men in Kinsale in Co Cork earlier this month.
