Two men remain in custody this morning, after an €8 million heroin seizure at Weston Airport in County Dublin.
Gardaí and Revenue officers searched and intercepted a light aircraft and a vehicle in south Dublin and Co Kildare yesterday.
They found 60 kg of vacuum-packed heroin – the largest seizure of the drug in the country this year.
Gardaí arrested two men in their 40s and 60s during the joint investigation.
They're being held at a Garda station in Kildare, where they can be questioned for up to seven days.
Assistant Garda Commissioner of Organised and Serious Crime Justin Kelly has described the seizure as a “hugely significant”.
He said the importance of disrupting criminal networks supplying this type of drug into our communities has been reinforced by the recent wave of overdoses in Dublin city centre.
In November, the HSE identified a dangerous mix of heroin linked to overdoses in Dublin city.
The HSE were alerted to 40 drug related overdoses in the space of 36 hours the weekend of November 11th.
HSE Clinical Lead on Addiction Services Professor Eamon Keenan said: “We are urging extreme caution following a sharp rise in the number of overdoses related to a powder being sold as heroin in the Dublin region.
“Recent overdoses may be caused by heroin mixed with nitazene, a potent and dangerous synthetic opioid. These pose a substantial risk of overdose, hospitalisation and death.”
The HSE said “it is safer not to use drugs at all” and people should particularly “avoid new batches of heroin, avoid buying from new suppliers and avoid trying new batches or new types of drugs”.
