Cocaine dealers busted at check point

May 2008

Two people stopped during a routine Garda checkpoint ended up being busted for having thousands of euro worth of drugs, after becoming uneasy during normal questioning.

More than €2,000 worth of cocaine and a large number of ecstasy tablets were discovered after the officers involved in the checkpoint near Rathdrum felt the two passengers were acting strangely.

Their suspicions proved to be well founded as a full search of the vehicle soon uncovered the parcels of drugs.

It is believed they were destined for the local drug market.

‘It was just a routine stop as part of Operation Baseline but the two occupants of the vehicle were behaving in a suspicious manners and good police work led to the recovery of the drugs.

We are pleased with the results of Operation Baseline since its introduction and this just proves how well it’s working,’ said a garda spokesperson.

Operation Baseline is an anti-crime patrol combining uniformed and armed gardaí and often features checkpoints established at different locations in the district.

The drug discovery occurred on Friday and involved two men believed to be in their 20s. Neither of the men are understood to be local and all the packages recovered were sent to the garda headquarters for testing.

A file on the incident is being prepared for the DPP.