logo
Man (40s) arrested over €1.6m herbal cannabis seizure in Wexford

Man (40s) arrested over €1.6m herbal cannabis seizure in Wexford

Irish Times19-07-2025
A man in his 40s has been arrested in connection with the seizure of €1.6 million worth of herbal cannabis in Wexford.
In a targeted joint operation involving
An Garda Síochána
and
Revenue
's Customs Service, a van containing approximately 80kg of herbal cannabis was intercepted in Ballycaraney, Co Wexford on Friday.
The man is being detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996 at a Garda station in the east of the country. He may be held for a period of up to seven days.
Pending analysis, the drugs that were seized hold an estimated street value of €1.6 million. They will be sent to Forensic Science Ireland for analysis, while investigations remain ongoing.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Records falsified relating to mentally ill inmate found dead, prison watchdog finds
Records falsified relating to mentally ill inmate found dead, prison watchdog finds

Irish Times

timean hour ago

  • Irish Times

Records falsified relating to mentally ill inmate found dead, prison watchdog finds

Records relating to the supervision of a severely mentally ill Spanish resident who was found dead in his cell in Cloverhill Prison were falsified, a prison watchdog has found. The Office of the Inspector of Prisons, which is led by Mark Kelly, was highly critical of how the Irish Prison Service (IPS) handled the detention of the deceased, whom it called 'Mr O', in 2022. It determined Mr O was in custody on suspicion of a minor offence and was due to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital the day after he was found dead in a close-supervision cell on August 10th, 2022. Prisoners under close supervision are supposed to be checked every 15 minutes. A prison journal recorded that staff had checked the prisoner at 7am, 7.15am and 7.30am. However, Mr O had been found unresponsive sitting on the toilet in his cell at 6.50am, causing staff to issue a 'Code Red' and call for an ambulance. This 'clearly' indicates the three journal entries had been filled in ahead of time by staff, 'entirely negating the value of this recording safeguard', the inspectorate said in a newly published report. The inspectorate also noted 'an (unsuccessful) effort had been made to erase the three entries'. The statutory inspection body has raised concerns about the falsification of prison records on several previous occasions. It echoed concerns contained in a recent report by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) that found several cases of records being falsified. The issue was particularly notable in Cloverhill and Limerick Prisons, where falsified records were discovered following several prisoner deaths in close-supervision cells. The CPT said minimal action had been taken by local prison management to address this. The Inspector of Prisons said it is 'imperative' the falsification of records 'is treated with the utmost seriousness' by management. Regarding Mr O, it said he was detained on a public order charge at Dublin Airport on August 4th after he was observed acting erratically. He was unable to take up bail after he was judged to be of unfit mind to sign the bond. In Cloverhill, his behaviour was observed as 'bizarre and erratic'. Staff reported he 'was standing on his bed in a state of undress and shouting at the floor and refused to respond to questions asked by the nurse'. Gardaí told prison staff the judge would strike out the charge against Mr O if treatment could be arranged. Staff also learned he had spent time in psychiatric hospitals outside the State and had not been taking his medication for a lengthy period of time. A place was found for Mr O in St Vincent's hospital in Fairview. He was due to be transferred on August 11th. However, early on August 10th, he was found unresponsive in his cell. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at 9.45am. The inspectorate's report does not detail a cause of death. The inspectorate repeated recommendations that 'urgent consideration' be given to quickly transferring mentally ill suspects charged with minor offences to local psychiatric hospitals. 'It remains unacceptable that prisoner-patients such as Mr O, suspected of minor offences, and suffering from a mental health disorder, cannot more rapidly access in-patient psychiatric treatment in local civil psychiatric hospitals.' In response, the IPS said it is working on implementing several recommendations in this area and that additional resources are being assigned to Cloverhill. Regarding the falsification of records, it said a 'digitisation project' will commence later this year that will improve record-keeping and limit 'the risk of falsification'. It said staff who are found to falsify records 'are sanctioned in line with the code of discipline'.

Indian taxi driver faces loss of livelihood as he recovers from unprovoked attack
Indian taxi driver faces loss of livelihood as he recovers from unprovoked attack

Irish Times

timean hour ago

  • Irish Times

Indian taxi driver faces loss of livelihood as he recovers from unprovoked attack

An Indian taxi driver faces losing his livelihood after an unprovoked attack by two passengers last week amid a growing number of racist assaults in Ireland. 'My children are so scared, they have asked me to promise them that I will never drive a taxi again,' said Lakhvir Singh (46). He is recovering from his physical injuries sustained in the attack but he has been left fearful of what could happen in the future. The father of two was dropping off two young men at Poppintree Community and Sports Centre when they turned on him and struck him twice across his forehead with a bottle, shouting, 'go back to your country'. READ MORE The men ordered the taxi on the FreeNow app at about 11.10pm and one of the men willingly paid the €50 fare upfront. The other man initially refused to get into the taxi with a 'black' driver but he was persuaded to take the lift, according to Mr Singh. After a stop-off at a garage in Ballymun, Mr Singh dropped the two men at Poppintree, where they turned on him without warning. 'The customer sitting in the front ran out and around to my door,' he said. 'He tried opening it but I held it firmly shut and the second man ran around to help his friend open the door. When they couldn't get it open, one of the men ran back around to the passenger side, picked up a broken bottle from the ground and struck me twice across the forehead. He was shouting 'Go back to your country' at me. 'They ran off when they saw the blood. I couldn't find my phone so I knocked on doors of nearby houses but nobody answered to help me. I went back to my car and found my phone and called the emergency services.' Mr Singh, who has been living in Ireland for 23 years, was taken to Dublin 's Mater hospital, where he needed 12 stitches to a wound on his forehead. He has been driving a taxi for more than 10 years in Dublin but is thinking of changing his job because of the attack. His taxi is still being forensically examined by gardaí and Mr Singh will have to pay for it to be cleaned of blood when it is returned. 'My two teenage children are very scared for me and have made me promise that I'll never drive a taxi again. I'll certainly never drive at night but I may have to find another job altogether. 'I'm scared and I'm scared now for my children who will be using public transport when they go to college. Every day there seems to be another story of racist attacks and it seems to be getting worse in recent months.' The Indian community in Ireland more widely have warned of a growing number of racist incidents. Last month, an Indian man who had recently moved to Ireland to work in the tech sector was beaten, stabbed and stripped by a group of people who falsely accused him of criminal behaviour. [ 'He kept saying: what wrong have I done? Why me?' An Indian man is left stripped and bloodied on an Irish street Opens in new window ] Another Indian man, Dr Santosh Yadav, was reportedly attacked in Clondalkin, Dublin, in late July. The chairperson of a leading Ireland-India group says he is receiving reports of daily attacks in the Greater Dublin Area and has called on the Government to mount an 'immediate and co-ordinated State response'. The Ireland India Council wrote to Tánaiste Simon Harris and Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan in the wake of the Tallaght attack and believes the same group of assailants may be responsible for four other attacks on the Indian community in recent weeks. Among measures it is calling for is the formal recognition of the hate crime status, a cross-departmental taskforce on hate crime and youth violence and legislation to hold parents responsible both 'financially and criminally' for repeated violent actions of minors in their care. Prasant Shukla, chairman of the Ireland India Council, said he is receiving at least two calls or emails each day about racial attacks on members of the Indian community living in the Greater Dublin Area. 'Incidents of assault, intimidation or harassment targeting Indian residents in Dublin are happening on the street, on the buses or in residential areas,' he said. 'People are now afraid to step outside during daylight hours. In one particular egregious case, a man's eyesight was affected. These cases cannot be dismissed or ignored.' Meanwhile, an Irish-born medical registrar said he was left 'stunned and upset' after a group of children hurled racial slurs at him as he left a shopping complex last week. Dr Taimoor Salman estimates children as young as 10 years old shouted 'Mr Curry Man' in an exaggerated accent at him. The incident occurred after 9pm on Thursday evening as Dr Salman dropped into Blackcastle Shopping Centre in Navan, Co Meath, to pick up a few groceries on his way home from work at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth. One boy did impersonations of Apu, the Indian shopkeeper in The Simpsons. 'I just left. I didn't say anything more, as they were children,' he said. 'I was stunned and upset. I have seen racial abuse and throwaway remarks first hand to me and my colleagues at the hospital but I would never expect this from children who are generally very accepting of other nationalities. 'There seems to be a horrible pack mentality and this incident was insidious.' Dr Salman was born in Ireland, where his father trained and practised as a surgeon and worked in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan before moving the family to work in the UK and Saudi Arabia. 'I lived in Navan and went to primary school here and have nothing but good memories of the town as a child. I never experienced any racism here. 'That's part of the reason I came back to live here with my wife and young daughter in 2017 and after I began working in the hospital in Drogheda.' Dr Salman, whose parents were born in Pakistan, believes that the streets of Navan have become too dangerous for him to walk at night. 'This wave of hatred to people of colour is quite recent and increasingly more open and brash. I've been back in Ireland for 15 years. In 2017, it was a peaceful and safe place and I could walk anywhere at any time without fear. Now it is too unsafe and I would only go to crowded places.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store