A Catholic priest in Newry, Co Down, has handed £15,000 worth of cannabis to the RUC in Newry, Co Down. In a statement yesterday, the IRA said it intercepted the drugs in the Monks hill area and gave them to a senior Catholic cleric in the town's cathedral.
The SDLP chairman of Newry and Mourne District Council, Mr Pat McElroy, said that while he was glad the drugs had been taken out of circulation, it was the job of the RUC, not the paramilitaries, to carry out that role. He was concerned that violence would be used against the people who had been in possession of the drugs.