RING OF STEEL FOR €33M METH COURT
Pair quizzed further after Garda escort
GARDAI have been granted a final 48 hours to question two men over the seizure of almost ¤33million worth of crystal meth.
Gardai placed a ring of steel and maintained a large presence around Tralee District Court yesterday.
The two men were brought there so officers could ask a judge to further extend their period of detention.
The men are being held under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007.
It deals with allegations associated with organised crime and comes following the shocking discovery of the meth, which has been linked to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
Solicitors for both men told the court they were objecting to a further detention – having been questioned by gardai since their arrest last Friday.
Judge David Waters ruled that neither of the arrested men can be publicly identified at this stage and denied a request by Chief Superintendent Padraig Powell to remove the media from the hearing, instead imposing reporting restrictions. The court was told both men have been detained for over 118 hours and had access to refreshments, showers and exercise.
Judge Waters said he was satisfied the investigation was being carried out “expeditiously” and granted a final detention period of 48 more hours.
Both men can now be questioned up until around 10.30am tomorrow, but they can take breaks in between. This will mean the detention period will be paused during that time.
A large crowd was seen gathered
outside the court as a large garda presence surrounded the area.
Both men were taken to and from the court separately.
Their arrest came after gardai made the incredible discovery of €32.8million worth of crystal meth in a shipping container at Cork Port last Friday and following searches of a business property in Co Kerry.
The meth is believed to have been destined for Australia and was being held here on behalf of the ruthless Sinaloa cartel – which was once led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
One of the arrested men is a wellknown businessman who has not come to Garda attention in the past.
The other man is the son of a former politician who is seen as a close associate of Morris O’shea Salazar, an Irish-mexican citizen who heads the European operation of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel.
The man is also well-known to gardai and has a violent past with prior convictions for assault. Gardai and Revenue
Officers seized 546kg of the synthetic drug which will now be analysed by Forensic Science Ireland.
Gardai from the Kerry and Cork Divisional Drugs Units along local gardai were involved in the massive operation.
Follow-up searches in Cork and Kerry including one at a business premises led to the seizure of two firearms and the arrest of two men.
Both are in their 40s and are currently being held at Garda stations in the southern region of the country.
The Sinaloa Cartel is considered the largest narco-trafficking gang in the world. Previous leader El Chapo is behind bars in the US.
Last year, we revealed Chilean investigators want to extradite O’shea, who was nicknamed “Mexican” when he was growing up in Killorglin in Co Kerry, from Mexico to face serious charges.
They want to charge him over an alleged plot to set up a so-called cell of the cartel in northern Chile in 2020 – during the Covid-19 pandemic.