Trio arrested over cash and drugs seizure
TWO teenagers were among three people arrested in Cork after cash and drugs worth nearly €100,000 were seized this week.
Gardai also detained three men in Laois as part of an investigation into organised crime, drugs and firearms trafficking.
One of the teenagers was a juvenile girl.
She was arrested alongside the driver of the car, a male in his 20s, after officers discovered €59,000 during a vehicle search. Both were released.
A follow-up search of a house in Athlone, Co Westmeath, resulted in the seizure of cannabis worth an estimated €40,000 and the arrest of a teenage male. He is currently being quizzed.
THE extraordinary story of the “Canoe man” is to be turned into a new TV series – with the Mirror in a starring role.
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe is based on the crimes of John Darwin, who faked his death in a €1million insurance scam.
The father-of-two “disappeared” after taking his kayak out in Seaton Carew, Co Durham, in 2002. He was reported missing by his wife Anne, who claimed pension, mortgage and life insurance payouts.
She lied for five years to their unsuspecting sons as John lived in a secret room beside their home.
Screenwriter Chris Lang said: “If I’d tried to sell this project as an original story, it would never have got further than the pitch. It’s just too far-fetched.”
The pair moved to Central America before John returned home, walking into a police station to claim he had amnesia.
His lies unravelled when the Mirror ran a front page story under the headline “Canoe’s this in Panama?” on December 5, 2007, with a picture of the pair in an estate agent’s office.
The Mirror story feature in the series.
It uncovered the scam and led to a trial after which both John and Anne were jailed for more than six years.
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