SOLUTION TO MYSTERY OF DRUG DEATHS NOW IN SIGHT

Investigators believe they are on the verge of a breakthrough in
identifying the contaminant in a consignment of heroin which has
killed addicts here and in Britain.

Significant progress has been made in laboratory tests in Scotland on
isolating the contaminant, now thought to be soil related and directly
linked to one shipment.

Samples of heroin deals and body tissue taken from the eight victims
here have been compiled by gardai and health authority officials, and
are being sent this weekend to the Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta, US, for analysis and toxicology tests.

The Garda national drugs unit believes the bad heroin was shipped into
the country from abroad by a trafficking gang based in Dublin's south
inner city.

Three out of four suspected drug traffickers, including a woman, have
been questioned about the importation. Two are currently in custody
while the third was released on medical grounds. The fourth suspect
has not yet been traced.

Samples of heroin taken from the street addicts have been added to
syringes and paraphernalia used by the victims, for inclusion in the
package to be sent to Atlanta, as well as blood, urine, body tissue
and body parts from the victims.

Key officials from the Atlanta centre have been working with health
inspectors in Dublin and in Glasgow over the past few weeks in a bid
to establish if the deaths here and in Scotland, England and Wales
could be linked.

It is understood that officials in Glasgow have made progress in the
past 48 hours, and are now satisfied the contaminant was contained in
the initial heroin shipment rather than substances used subsequently
to dilute the purity, and is possibly related to the soil where it was
produced.