Shoppers shocked as mop is used in bare-chested brawl inside Irish shopping centre
Search
08 Sept 2025
Search
08 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
An image of the cocaine which was seized and below, the Cessna light aircraft which gardaí believe was used to fly in the drugs
Two men are to appear at a special court this morning charged in connection to the seizure of almost €8.5m worth of drugs which was allegedly flown into Co Longford on a private plane last week.
The two men, aged 54 and 40, had been held at Ashbourne Garda Station following their arrest on Thursday evening.
Detectives believe Abbeyshrule was used by a transnational organised crime gang to land a substantial quantity of drugs into the country.
On Thursday evening, Under Operation Tara, two cars were stopped in the Lough Owel area of Co Westmeath shortly after 6pm.
In one of the cars they found six hold-alls and one suitcase, with 120kg of cocaine wrapped in green tape, which is estimated to be worth €8.4m.
The drugs were produced in South America and smuggled into Europe. They were flown to Longford on Thursday in a Cessna light aircraft, before they were transferred to a waiting car.
That resulted in follow-up searches being carried out at houses in Naas, Co Kildare, and Waterford city, and at the airfield, where the aircraft was seized.
In total, 120 kilogrammes of cocaine with an estimated street value of €8.4 million was seized by Gardaí from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau supported by other national units in County Westmeath on Thursday, 4th August, 2022, have been charged.
They are both expected to appear before a special sitting of Mullingar District Court at 11am.
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
