POUNDS 8M DRUG SEIZURE IN FRANCE CRACKS VITAL SUPPLY LINE

A Massive drugs shipment, with a street value estimated at pounds 8m,
was seized by French police and Customs officers yesterday as it was
being shipped to the Irish market.

The haul of cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis was destined for two major
drug gangs operating here.

Gardai described the seizure, which has disrupted a vital supply line
from the continent for the traffickers, as a major body blow to the
gangs.

Last night five people including a lorry driver from Ballyjamesduff,
Co Cavan, were being questioned by French police at the port of Calais.

The drugs were found in general cargo at the port when police and
Customs officers intercepted a lorry owned by a reputable Co Cavan
haulage firm.

The driver was detained for questioning but the authorities stressed
the arrest did not automatically implicate him or the firm in the drug
smuggling operation.

The shipment is believed to have originated in Amsterdam in the
Netherlands and was tracked by the French police after it crossed the
border following an operation which involved close contact with the
garda national drugs unit and the Customs national drugs team.

The consignment was due to have been shipped from Calais to Dover and
then driven to Holyhead to be transported from there to the North Wall
in Dublin.

Gardai estimated that at least 90pc of the shipment was destined for
distribution on the streets on both sides of the border and the rest
was intended for traffickers in Britain.

The shipment consisted of 500kg of cannabis resin, 250,000 ecstasy
tablets and 4kg of cocaine. The drugs were carefully concealed in the
legitimate cargo on board the lorry.

Garda intelligence suggested the haul had been organised by two gangs
- - one based in Crumlin on the southside of Dublin and the other
operating between Newry and Dundalk.

The Crumlin gang is led by a well-known city criminal who has been
under surveillance in the past by the garda national drugs unit and is
a former henchman of the murdered gangland boss, Martin `The General'
Cahill. Its share of the consignment was due to have been distributed
in the capital.

The other gang is led by a top cross-border trafficker who is now
monopolising the drugs market in the border area since the murders of
other traffickers, Paddy Farrell, who was shot dead by his girlfriend,
and IRA victims Brendan `Speedy' Fegan and Paul `Bull' Downey. His
distribution area is thought to cover several counties on both sides
of the border.

Meanwhile, a pounds 250,000 haul of heroin was seized in a house in
Ballymun in north Dublin yesterday. A man was detained for
questioning.