Suspected drugs worth £6.5m seized in NI Joint Agency Task Force operation
Suspected drugs with an estimated street value of £6.5 million have been seized by police in Northern Ireland.
Detectives discovered the suspected cannabis, cocaine and ketamine concealed within food packaging following a search of premises in the Mallusk area of Newtownabbey.
A 28-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B controlled drugs.
The seizure on Monday morning (March 3) followed a Joint Agency Task Force operation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) Organised Crime Unit and the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau
PSNI Detective Inspector Conor Sweeney said: “We believe the drugs on this seizure were intended to supply various markets across the UK. The Joint Agency Task Force was established with the aim of bringing a concerted and enhanced effort to tackle cross-jurisdictional organised crime.
“All partners within the Task Force are totally committed to working together to reduce the misery caused by drug smuggling and to dismantle the organised groups profiting from this type of criminality.
“It is not difficult to imagine the harm that would have been caused by this volume of drugs being dealt on street corners within our communities to vulnerable people, children and those with addictions issues.
“Nor is it difficult to imagine the mayhem that the organised criminals behind this would have wreaked with the millions of pounds of profit they potentially stood to make.
“I am delighted the drugs have been removed from circulation and that this income stream has been denied to the criminal network.
“However, we recognise there is still much work to be done to tackle such serious and organised criminality.”