A man is due to appear in court today in connection with a €500,000 drugs seizure made by gardaí who stopped a car on the main Cork-Dublin road near Mitchelstown on Tuesday night.
The seizure was made when armed gardaí stopped a sports car at Church Quarter, Kilbehenny, Co Limerick, and found 6kg of cocaine in a box behind the driver's seat.
Gardaí arrested a 40-year-old Nigerian man with a Dublin address and his 26-year-old female companion under drug- trafficking legislation and brought them to Fermoy station for questioning. Both were questioned for several hours yesterday before the woman was released without charge late last night.
The man will be brought before Midleton District Court this morning to be charged in connection with the seizure.
The drugs were examined at Fermoy before being sent for analysis to the Garda forensic science laboratory in Dublin while the man's two-seater sports car was also brought to Fermoy for technical and forensic examination by gardaí.
The seizure was part of the nationwide Operation Anvil which was launched in May 2005 and is aimed at clamping down on organised crime, including drug dealing. Gardaí believe the cocaine was destined for the local market in Cork city in the run-up to Christmas.
Tuesday night's seizure is just one of a number of significant cocaine seizures in Cork this year and follows the discovery of cocaine-mixing factories on Popes Quay and Commons Road in March and October and a €250,000 cocaine seizure at Cork Airport in July.
