DRUG GANG USING AIRFIELDS IN HUGE SMUGGLING SCAM

A multi-million pound drug trafficking gang is using small airfields to
smuggle in massive shipments of cocaine, ecstasy and heroin from the
European mainland.

At least six flights into the country from European cities are believed to
have been successful in landing shipments here in the past three months.

But in one case the traffickers were forced to dump the substantial cargo
over the Irish Sea after the authorities became suspicious.

Drug unit detectives have set up a special operation to counteract the
shipping scam and believe they are closing the net on the gang who are
based in Dublin.

Details of the latest trafficking route emerged last night after gardai and
customs officers seized drugs worth almost pounds 300,000, handguns and
money in separate operations at Dublin airport and in Wexford and Meath.

Officers are satisfied the traffickers have already used Weston Aerodrome
near Leixlip, Co Kildare, in a bid to avoid increased checks by gardai and
customs officers at the main airports where passengers are regularly
``profiled'' to identify likely drug couriers.

Detectives also suspect that at least three other small airfields in
Leinster have been used and that the smuggling has been under way since the
end of the summer at least.

``There is evidence to suggest that a number of big shipments have got
through so far and the drugs involved range from cocaine to ecstasy to
heroin. But we are satisfied we are moving in on the gang,'' one officer
said last night.

Meanwhile, a man and a woman were quizzed yesterday after gardai stopped a
suspect car in Wexford town and seized pounds 130,000 which they believe
was to have been used to purchase cannabis and ecstasy in Europe.

In a follow-up search, detectives recovered two handguns, ammunition and
almost three kilos of cannabis, worth pounds 30,000, in a house in Ratoath,
Co Meath.

In a separate operation, customs officers who had been ``profiling''
passengers on a flight into Dublin from Amsterdam stopped two men from
Ballyfermot and subsequently seized a kilo of heroin worth between pounds
150,000 and pounds 250,000. The suspects were being quizzed in Santry garda
station last night.