Charged with having cocaine worth €2m at Rosslare Europort

A LORRY driver’s wife wept in Wexford Court as her husband was remanded in custody charged with having more than two million euro worth of cocaine in Rosslare.

Forty-one year old Damian Bogusz, with an address at Grange Park in Waterford, was picked up by Customs and Excise in Rosslare Europort on July 30.

Two days later he was brought before the District Court in Belvedere Road where formal evidence of arrest and charge was given by Detective Garda Pat O’Brien.

The defendant followed proceedings with the assistance of a Polish interpreter as the judge was told how he had arrived in Ireland aboard a Stena ferry from France.

A stop and search operation uncovered 46 kilos of drugs over the bunk in the lorry cab.

The seized substance was thought at first to be amphetamines but preliminary testing by Forensic Science Ireland suggested that it was in fact cocaine, with a value of €2.5 million.

Bogusz, who worked for Michael O’Neill in Bagenalstown, had been in Spain delivering a load of beef.

Interviewed, he told the detective he had been approached by a couple in Spain to bring two holdalls, which they said contained books, to Ireland.

He received €200 for this favour according to his version of events and he was due to hand the holdalls over at a roundabout on his return to Ireland.

The investigating detective garda described the seizure of drugs as huge and opposed the granting of bail.

The court learned that the accused had been working for 14 years as a lorry driver and that he intended setting up home in Ireland with his wife Anna who had remained in Poland until recently.

Judge Miriam Walsh observed that Bogusz came across as a benign gentleman but she refused bail, remanding him to Cloverhill in custody for a week.