Revenue seizes almost €3m worth of drugs in Limerick
Revenue
officers have seized almost €3 million worth of herbal cannabis in
Limerick
.
The 147kg seizure was made on Thursday as a result of a joint operation conducted by Revenue's Customs Service, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and Limerick Divisional Drugs Unit.
It was part of Revenue's ongoing investigations involving organised crime groups and the importation, sale and supply of illegal drugs. The haul was valued at €2.94 million.
Revenue did not disclose the location or other details of the seizure.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sunday World
21 minutes ago
- Sunday World
Dad with 53 convictions jailed for sexually exploiting girl he used to babysit
In her victim impact statement the young woman said her life spiralled after the abuse. A 49-year-old Laois father has been jailed for two years for defilement and sexual exploitation of a child he used to babysit. The man, who is Irish heritage but was born in the UK before moving to Ireland as a child, pleaded guilty to defilement of the 15-year-old girl and obtaining a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Co Laois, on dates in 2021. The man, who cannot be identified to protect the anonymity of his victim, was sentenced to two years after appearing in Portlaoise Circuit Court this week. The court heard he had 53 previous convictions for offences including indecency, animal welfare offences, public order offences, indecent communication, breaches of barring orders and road traffic offences. He sat with his head bowed in court as the victim and her family members looked on during his sentencing hearing on Thursday. In her victim impact statement the young woman said her life spiralled after the abuse. 'I was having thoughts that I wanted to take my own life. I couldn't concentrate in school and was thinking about suicide.' She said she started skipping school and running away from home in the aftermath. 'My family did everything they could to get me the help I needed.' She said she got counselling but some days would battle to get to sleep at night. I kept getting nightmares thinking about it. I still think about it. I will never forget what happened.' Detective Garda Ray Dermody told Judge told Judge Keenan Johnson that the girls father reported her missing on November 11 2021 and spoke to gardai again the following day to say he believed she was at the man's house where they later found her. Days later she revealed to gardai that the man had sex with her in the house while she was there and had also digitally penetrated her on another occasion earlier that month. The man was a brother of an ex-girlfriend of the victim's father and the court heard the man previously babysat her and had been chatting to her online and by phone with the conversations turning sexual and very intense. He called her at 6.30am on November 2, 2021 but she missed the call and called him back. The court heard he told her to come out to his house and she initially said she didn't know if she would because she had to go to school. However, he convinced her to ditch school to go to his home. When she arrived he stripped down to his underwear and told her to take her clothes off. He kissed her and took off her underwear before digitally penetrating her. The court heard the girl felt confused after what happened and ended things by saying she needed to go to bathroom. She stayed in his house overnight before going home. On November 11 the man messaged the girl saying he missed her very much and she went over to his home. They went to the bedroom and got undressed before he kissed her and had sex with her. The girl made a complaint to gardai in the days after she was found at the man's home. He initially denied any sexual activity had taken place and said he saw himself as a 'sort of mentor' figure , an 'agony aunt' and a comforting shoulder but 'no more' than that. However, he later came clean and admitted everything. The court heard the man was previously married and had a number of children. He moved to Ireland when he was a child to stay with family here and in his adult life had sporadic work as a painter and gas fitter. In mitigation his defence counsel said the girl wasn't abducted by the man but accepted that society cannot condone his behaviour. Judge Johnson said the man actively initiated sexual contact with a girl who was 'clearly very vulnerable' and described the two offences as 'abhorrent.' He commended the young woman for coming forward and sentenced the man to two years imprisonment.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Carlow shooting witness says she saw gunman with another male
Evan Fitzgerald , the gunman who fired shots into the air in a Carlow shopping centre before taking his own life, interacted with another young man before opening fire, according to a witness statement taken by gardaí . The witness also described how, before the shooting, she pleaded with Mr Fitzgerald not to do anything after he told her 'this is going to be really loud'. Mr Fitzgerald (22), a steelyard worker from Portrushen, Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, fired a number of shots into the air in the busy Fairgreen Shopping Centre in Carlow Town at about 6.15pm on Sunday, June 1st, before taking his own life. At the time he was facing charges relating to the possession of a military rifle and handgun which he had allegedly attempted to buy on the dark web. READ MORE It has since emerged undercover gardaí sold him the guns, which they had decommissioned, after being tipped off that Mr Fitzgerald was attempting to source weapons on the internet. The exact reason behind Mr Fitzgerald's decision to open fire in the shopping centre remains unclear. All the shots were fired into the air and gardaí have said they do not believe he intended to harm anyone. Garda sources say CCTV shows Mr Fitzgerald entering the shopping centre alone and that there is nothing to indicate he was acting with others. One woman, who asked not to be identified due to security concerns, said she was upstairs in the shopping centre nursing her newborn baby when she spotted Mr Fitzgerald and another young man. She said the pair were standing near some amusement machines and that one of the men was going through a bag. 'They were smiling at each other, and he was showing something to the other guy. The other guy had his phone out and holding it in a way that kind of looked like he was filming,' the woman told The Irish Times. 'They were definitely together. There was no doubt about that.' She said the 'taller, thinner' young man then departed the scene, leaving Mr Fitzgerald behind. The woman, who worked as a teacher, said she suspected Mr Fitzgerald was 'getting up to mischief'. Mr Fitzgerald then passed the woman as she was holding her newborn. 'He looked at me and said, 'just so you know, this is going to be really loud',' she said. The woman said she responded 'how about don't, then'. She repeated this a number of times but the man ignored her. She said he had an object in his hand which she thought may have been a paintball gun. Mr Fitzgerald did not seem agitated and upset at this point, she said. Mr Fitzgerald then left the area and went down the stairs. He passed the woman's partner who was coming up to join her. The man had noticed that Mr Fitzgerald was holding a shotgun and told his partner they needed to hide. The couple and their baby hid in a conference room where they heard six or seven shots. Both were left badly shaken by the incident. Gardaí later took statements from both witnesses. The woman, whose mother was downstairs by the Tesco store, said she thought people in the shopping centre were being shot. It took a long time for her to verify her mother was safe, she said. The woman's mother said she took cover behind some trolleys while the shots went off. 'I was laying there on my belly, hoping he wouldn't notice me,' she said. 'I laid there for the longest time, until I started hearing the gates of the Tesco coming down. 'So I stood up, and then a lovely police officer came over, and he just ushered me out the door and said go home. 'I had no idea where my family were. The first shot, for all I knew, killed my grandson.'
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Eight women come forward with information on being targeted by 1976 killers of Elizabeth Plunkett
Eight women have come forward to allege they were potentially targeted by serial killers Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw in 1976, around the time the pair murdered two women in different parts of Ireland. The testimonies suggest Shaw and Evans made failed attempts to murder far more victims than previously known. Their testimonies are being gathered by solicitor James McGuill, who represents the family of Dublin woman Elizabeth Plunkett, who was murdered by the pair in 1976. The British men went on to rape and murder another woman, Mary Duffy (23), in Galway, before being caught a short time later. Shaw and Evans had travelled to Ireland from the UK with the intention of raping and murdering Irish women. READ MORE The first new witness came forward earlier this year, having seen media reports of the inquest which was finally held into the death of Ms Plunkett (23) in January. The inquest was held after it emerged recently that no death certificate had ever been issued for her. The new witness said she was hit by a car after she left a music session in McDaniel's pub in Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow. The incident occurred on the same night as Shaw and Evans abducted Ms Plunkett, who had also been in McDaniel's. Mr McGuill said he obtained the woman's medical records, which confirm the timings. 'Part of Shaw's confession had him being party to abducting Elizabeth and then retracing the steps to McDaniel's pub and then going back again. So he was driving around the area at the time,' the solicitor said. Mary Duffy, of Deerpark, Belcarra, was a victim of convicted killers Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw in September 1976. Last month, RTÉ launched a new podcast series concerning Ms Plunkett's murder and highlighting the fact that, despite the men's confessions, no one was ever convicted for her death. Since the Stolen Sister podcast began, several more women have come forward with 'strikingly similar accounts of being pursued by these two guys,' Mr McGuill said. He said some of these accounts may have been given to gardaí at the time of the original investigation and 'may or may not' have been centralised. The women's accounts will be passed on to the Garda Commissioner and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the hope that they will provide enough new evidence to reopen the case against Shaw for the murder of Ms Plunkett. Evans died in custody in 2012. Shaw, who is the State's longest-serving prisoner, has been repeatedly denied parole. As Shaw was not convicted for Ms Plunkett's murder, her family are not considered victims in a legal sense and therefore have no rights to object to his parole. The reason Shaw was never tried for her murder remains unclear. Both Evans and Shaw were initially charged with the rape and murder of both Ms Plunkett and Ms Duffy. A High Court judge later ruled they should each be put on trial separately. Evans was tried and convicted for the murder of Ms Duffy, but the trial judge ordered the jury to return a not-guilty verdict for Ms Plunkett's murder. Shaw was put on trial solely for the murder of Ms Duffy. His first trial ended in a hung jury. He was convicted in a later trial, and both men received life terms. The DPP subsequently withdrew charges against Shaw relating to Ms Plunkett's rape and murder. Despite this, over the years it became accepted knowledge that Shaw and Evans were convicted of her murder. The 'fact' was repeated in books, articles and even by the authorities. Mr McGuill said it is possible the DPP assumed Shaw would never be released from prison, so it decided to avoid the expense of another trial for Ms Plunkett's murder. He said it is also possible there were concerns about some of the investigative methods used by gardaí which authorities did not want to come to light. It is unlikely a full explanation will ever emerge. Many of the files relating to Ms Plunkett's murder are believed to have been stolen from the DPP's office in 1987 by Martin Cahill, the notorious criminal known as the General. It also remains unclear whether authorities will be able to reopen the investigation into Shaw. In response to queries, Garda headquarters said it is exclusively a matter for the DPP.
