The Irish Bust Thread

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ninja bud said:

That hash from the bust in cork looks like absolute shit. Glad I dont have to buy soapbar these days.

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VonBudí said:

came across this earlier

some highlights, is the last one contaminated?

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Cannabis in Ireland is highly contaminated' - Luke Ming Flanagan
Nov 09 2011

Roscommon South Leitrim TD Luke Ming Flanagan says most of the cannabis consumed in Ireland is highly contaminated.

Although Deputy Flanagan has given up the drug since becoming a TD, he believes that this issue should be discussed as thousands of people continue to use the drug - unaware of its ingredients.

The Roscommon TD is sporting a hemp suit in the Dáil today made by Louis Copeland.

He says it's to mark the anniversary of his 10 year campaign to have cannabis legalised.

Deputy Flanagan brought up the issue of contaminated cannabis in the Dáil yesterday, but was disappointed when the Minister of State for Health Roisin Shortfall did not focus on the problem.

He said that while the Government concentrates on its "Drugs are bad" mantra - it continues to overlook a very serious question of the new evil for example, grit weed, which include glass particles, sugars, sands and other micro contaminants.

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Hundred Gram Oz said:

Are any of you Irish lads getting any of that 'Orange Bud' that is total crap? It never dries, goes moldy and looks/smells/smokes like total shite, it's all over the place, Viet grown apparently.

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Wednesday December 21 2011
A MAN who was found growing cannabis plants with a street value of almost €3,000 had the case against him adjourned at Dundalk District Court last week.

Darren Kinahan, (35), Whiterath, Dromiskin, admitted having drugs, having drugs for sale or supply and cultivating cannabis charges when he appeared before Judge Flann Brennan.

The court heard how Gardai had a warrant to search his house on June 30th and found 24 cannabis plants, ten saplings and a number of seeds. The estimated street value of the find is €2,800.

Solicitor Tony Danagher said his client, who has no previous convictions, is a former stonemason who is currently on social welfare because of the lack of work. The solicitor said Kinahan's father had passed away in April and his mother suffers from MS.

Mr Danagher said Kinahan 'does the best he can to help her'. The court was told that Kinahan has had problems with cannabis for many years. The solicitor said that Kinahan was 'the embodiment' of what Judge Brennan has warned about the use of cannabis ' which leads to addiction and creates problems in people's lives'.

The solicitor said his client was 'quite grateful to be caught at that early stage' and is now 'doing everything he can to turn his life around'.

A number of references were handed into the judge, who was told that Kinahan is getting help from his GP, is engaging with addiction services and is taking adult education courses with a view to doing catering at DKIT.

Mr Danagher said Kinahan was ' under no illusions about the seriousness of his position'.

Judge Brennan said he wanted to see probation and medical reports ahead of sentencing and adjourned the case to May 2.

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Gardaí have seized 5,000 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of €1.5 million in Co Offaly in a raid on one of the biggest cannabis factories ever discovered in Ireland.

Three people were arrested after a search at a warehouse at Aughnacarna, Durrow at 9.30pm last night.

A Garda spokesman said a large cannabis cultivation operation was discovered at the warehouse.

Three non-Irish nationals, all men, were arrested at the scene.

One is aged 30 and the other two are in their 20s.

They are detained under section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996 at Tullamore Garda station.

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'Very moral' man was growing cannabis and giving it away
Tuesday January 24 2012

AN UNEMPLOYED wood worker who grew cannabis gave away supplies of the drug without looking for payment, Judge Gerard Haughton was told last week.

The case of 59-year-old James Redmond dated back to a Garda search of his home at Moneydurtlow in Ferns on February 10 last. Officers were brought by the defendant to an outhouse which had been converted to allow cultivation of cannabis.

The building had been insulated and fitted out with strong lights and fans to grow seven plants. In another room, plants were being propagated and a quantity of cannabis herb was seized. The value of the mature plants was put at €1,200 and the herb was worth €500, the court was informed.

Judge Gerard Haughton also took account of the fact that the accused had a previous conviction for cultivation of cannabis, dating back to 2008.

Defending solicitor John O'leary said that his client could not have been more cooperative when the Gardaí called. Redmond suffered from depression and found his home grown remedy more effective than Prozac, said the solicitor.

He had given quantities of the drug to a man who was confined to a wheelchair to deal with pain, without charge. He also gave away some of his crop to a manic depressive.

Mr. O'leary described his client as a deep reader and a very moral person. He offered the court an undertaking not to supply anyone else.

Judge Haughton responded that it was not up to Redmond to decide which laws he would obey. He must expect to face the consequences of his illegal activity. The community service orders imposed for the previous offence did not appear to have served as a deterrent, the judge observed.

The consequences of the latest conviction were a nine-month jail sentence, suspended on the defendant being bound to the peace for two years. An order for destruction of the seized drugs was also handed down.

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Drug purity ruling a blow for DPP

Sunday January 22 2012
The DPP and gardai are considering the potential fallout from a legal ruling in a drug trafficking trial which last week saw charges dropped because the purity levels of the seized cocaine haul could not be proven.

It has also emerged that despite a previous Supreme Court ruling quashing a conviction against a drug dealer for exactly the same reasons, the State's main forensic laboratory still does not test the purity levels of illegal drugs.

The February 2011 ruling in which Wexford man, Alphonsus Connolly, successfully overturned his conviction under Section 15(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act was last week used as part of a successful legal bid to have more serious charges against another drug dealer dropped.

The 15(a) law was introduced by the Government in 1997 as part of a "zero tolerance policy" to drug trafficking and in response to the gangland shooting of journalist Veronica Guerin.

Under the law a person found in possession of €13,000 or more worth of illegal drugs faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.

On Friday last Englishman Imran Ramzan, 34, was found guilty in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of possession of cocaine for sale or supply.

The haul was valued at €584,500 and Ramzan of Polygon Road, Manchester, was charged with the more serious "15(a)" charge.

But during the trial, Judge Patrick McCartan ruled that the State had to drop the 15(a) charge because of last year's Supreme Court appeal which ruled that the value of the drugs could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt without a purity test.

The latest judgement is set to be "discussed at a very high level" and could mean the bigger drug seizures will have to be tested for purity in future.

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WHAT IS believed to be the largest cannabis cultivation operation detected in the State has been uncovered at a warehouse in Co Offaly.

About 5,000 cannabis plants valued at €1.5 million were discovered when gardaí from Tullamore, assisted by the regional support unit and the local drugs unit, raided a warehouse in Durrow, just outside Tullamore, on Tuesday night.

Three men, two in their 20s and a 30-year-old, were arrested during the intelligence-led Garda operation at about 9.30pm.

The three Asian men are being detained at Tullamore Garda station under section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act. The men can be held for up to a week.

A Garda spokesman described the “grow house” as highly sophisticated.

He said specialist lighting and equipment had been used in the operation and the electricity meter had been bypassed.

According to gardaí, the 5,000 plants were at various stages of growth and the grow house may have been in operation “for a number of months”.

On entering the premises, gardaí found evidence to suggest that the people who were tending to the plants had been living in the cannabis factory.

Such was the scale of the operation, gardaí expect it will take a number of days before all of the plants and associated paraphernalia are removed from the building.

Gardaí are planning to move the plants and equipment from the warehouse to Dublin and Tullamore for analysis and storage.

The discovery was made at a former warehouse for machine parts at Aughnacarna, Durrow, on a rural road just off the N52 on the approach to the Tullamore bypass.

Gardaí have sealed off the area and are conducting a detailed examination of the scene.

Electric Ireland was called in to repair and make safe the electrical supply.

Neighbours were shocked to learn of the discovery.

“You would, on an odd occasion, see a truck up there, but that wouldn’t be unusual,” one local man said.

He would often go for walks along the road, he added, but had never noticed anything out of the ordinary.

A member of the local community watch said she regularly passed the site but had never seen anything that might have aroused her suspicions.

This is the fourth major cannabis grow house to be discovered by gardaí in the midlands region in the past three weeks.

On January 9th, a 28-year-old Chinese national was arrested following the discovery of two grow houses containing 450 cannabis plants worth an estimated €180,000 in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

He was subsequently charged with cultivating cannabis.

A 33-year-old Chinese national was arrested in Athlone, Co Westmeath, on January 11th, when 300 plants valued at €125,000 were discovered at a grow house in Baylough, Athlone.

He was also charged with cultivating cannabis.

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By Ken Foy, Crime correspondent
Monday February 13 2012

A WAREHOUSE where detectives seized 2,000 cannabis plants worth €800,000 was also used in a criminal enterprise by one of Ireland's most notorious foreign criminals.

Hassan Hassan -- the Lebanese criminal who gardai believe ordered the murder of his innocent wife Baiba Saulite in a murder that shocked the nation in 2006 -- used the same warehouse in Colbinstown, Co Kildare, before he was busted after a massive garda operation in 2004.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning armed detectives again swooped on the warehouse, which is located near Kilcullen, Co Kildare, and discovered the massive haul.

A local man aged in his 50s was arrested and brought to Newbridge Garda Station in Co Kildare where he was released without charge on Thursday.

A file on the drugs case will now be prepared for the DPP and follow up enquiries are being made by the Garda National Drugs Unit and detectives based at Newbridge.

Sources say that the drugs bust is in no way connected to Hassan Hassan (43) who left Ireland in March, 2010, after serving a number of jail sentences at Portlaoise Prison.

Annoying

A local source explained that this week's bust happened after "gardai discovered the cannabis factory because the diesel generator used to keep the lighting and irrigation system working became loud and was running throughout the night annoying neighbours."

It is understood that a local criminal has forged links with an oriental gang to cultivate cannabis at the warehouse.

The bust in Co Kildare is linked to a seizure at an Industrial Unit near Ballyboughil, Co Dublin on Tuesday evening where 1,500 cannabis plants worth €600,000 were found as well as €240,000 worth of freshly harvested cannabis.

This week's massive drugs bust at the warehouse in Colbinstown happened almost eight years to the day since Hassan Hassan's major car-stealing scam was uncovered by gardai in the same premises.

On that occasion gardai found about 20 top-of-the-range stolen vehicles, all of which were being stripped and prepared for export to eastern Europe. Four men from Lebanon and Syria were arrested, charged and later convicted, including Hassan Hassan who was jailed for four years .

While he was subsequently in jail he linked up with Limerick criminals and a crew of drug dealers from north Dublin. He is now understood to be based in the Middle East.

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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1020/1224325506071.html

Men jailed for drug plants

BARRY ROCHE

Three men were yesterday jailed for five years for cultivating cannabis with a street value of over €800,000 in a commercial growhouse operation in Co Cork.

Chinese nationals, Jin Ping Chen (26), Zhien Jie Liu (24) and Gui Yu (21), all of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis at Springfield Industrial Estate in Youghal on March 12th last contrary to section 17 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Det Sgt Seán Leahy told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the cannabis-growing operation at the industrial unit had 12 separate compartments with cannabis plants at various

stages of maturity being grown in four of the compartments under specialised lighting conditions.

The parts played by people in drug operations were often categorised in terms of various rungs of a ladder but in the case, the three accused were so far down the operation network, they were not on the ladder at all, he told the court.

The three men had responded to a Chinese website ad for work and came to Ireland illegally and had arrived at the industrial unit in Youghal before they realised that the work would involve the cultivation of cannabis, said Det Sgt Leahy.

They lived at the unit where they were effectively gardeners, watering the plants, moving them from one unit to another and regulating temperatures, for which they were to be paid €350 a week.

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Over 6,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of €5m, have been seized.

An industrial unit in the Blanchardstown area of Dublin has also been raided and equipment for setting up growhouses has been discovered.

Lighting and irrigation systems, along with compost, flower pots and other equipment necessary to set up a growhouse, were seized.

The operation began just after midday when officers from the Garda National Drugs Unit, along with local gardaí from the counties involved, began a series of raids on five industrial premises.

Four large scale cannabis growhouses, each with between 1,500 and 2,000 plants were found in Swinford, Newbridge, Tramore and Ardee.

Five men have been arrested and are now being detained under drug trafficking legislation.

Two men are being held in Ballina, two more in Tramore and the fifth suspect is being questioned in Drogheda.

Gardaí believe they are connected to two separate criminal gangs, one of which was not only operating its own growhouses but also setting them up for other drug trafficking.

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Cannabis growhouse operation goes underground
Thursday, April 25, 2013

By Sean O’Riordan
The gang accessed the containers through the floor of a mobile home near the village of Ballyvourney.

Gardaí say it is the first bunker-style growhouse of its type found. They described it as “very sophisticated”, with its own power and water supply.

Armed with a search warrant, members of the Cork West Divisional Drugs Unit, raided the growhouse shortly after 7pm last Tuesday.

They found about 150 plants in various stages of growth, which have an estimated street value of €100,000.

Three men, believed to be in their early to mid-30s and from Eastern Europe, were arrested.

Two were being detained at Bandon Garda Station and the third in Macroom Garda Station under section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act, 1996.

The growhouse was concealed under the mobile home in a woodland clearing at Derreenaling — about 3km south-west of Ballyvourney, near the Cork/Kerry border.

“This wasn’t done with a spade and shovel. Machinery had to be used to dig out the site for the containers,” said a senior Garda source.

He added it was the first underground growhouse of its type he had seen.

“We were used to mainstream republicans in the past and now dissident republicans using underground bunkers for hiding arms, training purposes, and hiding people. But we haven’t see this type of concealment with growhouses.”

Gardaí cordoned off the growhouse and yesterday morning started a full analysis of its contents. It is the second major growhouse seizure to occur on the Cork/Kerry border in past few days.

Last Thursday night, gardaí from Kanturk seized 204 cannabis plants in various stages of growth and about 1kg of processed cannabis worth in the region of €170,000.

The cannabis plants were found in sheds outside a family home near the village of Rathmore, Co Kerry.

A number of members of a family were in the house when gardaí raided it. There were no arrests at the time.

However, a Garda spokesman confirmed yesterday that a mother and son had since been arrested in connection with that investigation. “They were released without charge and a file is to be prepared for the DPP.”

Meanwhile, in an unrelated drugs seizure, gardaí arrested two men in their 40s following the discovery of cocaine, cannabis resin and cannabis herb worth €20,000 on the northside of Cork City.

Elsewhere, gardaí last night arrested two men, seized a number of stolen vehicles, and uncovered a cannabis growing facility in Ballycoolin, Dublin. The cannabis was worth about €125,000.

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Gardai uncover underground cannabis growhouse in Cork



Gardaí were last night continuing to question three men arrested following the discovery of a sophisticated underground cannabis growhouse with plants worth over €100,000 in Co Cork.
Members from the West Cork Divisional Drugs Unit arrested three Lithuanians yesterday when they raided a caravan on rented land at Dereenaling in Ballyvourney near the Kerry border.
Officers discovered a sophisticated underground bunker constructed from two 40 foot long containers with heating and lighting equipment hidden beneath the caravan.
According to gardaí, the gang had excavated out land with a JCB and buried the two containers before placing a caravan over the site with a trap door leading to the bunker.
The bunker was equipped with a diesel generator to power electric lights being used to mature the plants while the gang had also siphoned water from a local stream to help grow the plants.
gardaí in West Cork, who have considerable experience in investigating cannabis growhouse operations, described it as one of the most”ingenious and sophisticated we’ve come across”.
“It was very well constructed and very well concealed - the fact they were using their own generator meant that their ESB bill never soared which is often a tell tale sign,” said one Garda source.
The three men, who are aged 46, 44 and 31, were arrested at the scene following the raid by gardaí at around 7.30pm on Tuesday evening under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act.
Two of the men were brought to Bandon Garda Station and the third was brought to Macroom Garda Station for questioning about the growhouse operation.
Gardaí sealed off the scene overnight and yesterday Garda technical experts carried out a detailed forensic examination of the bunker for fingerprint and other DNA evidence.
gardaí also began removing the plants which are of varying stages of maturity and they are due to sent for analysis to the state laboratory to get a more precise figure for their value.
gardaí were last night trying to establish how long the cannabis growhouse operation had been in existence producing cannabis which they believe was being supplied to the local and national markets.

Barry Roche

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