Over €5 million worth of cocaine seized in Ireland ahead of St. Patrick’s Day

Around €5 million worth of cocaine was seized by Irish police (Gardai) in Monaghan on Friday, March 13, just ahead of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

According to RTÉ, a 53-year-old man has been charged in connection with the drug bust after appearing in court on Monday, March 16. A woman in her 40s who was also arrested in relation to the seizure has since been released without charge.

Gardai carried out a search last week on a number of vehicles and the premises of a business in County Monaghan, discovering a haul of cocaine worth around €5.25m (£4.56m) in street value, BBC News reports.

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The man was charged with possession of a controlled drug for the purpose of selling or supplying. According to RTÉ, there was no application for bail.

The large-scale drug bust came just days before St. Patrick’s celebrations, around the same time that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) warned those living in Ireland about contaminated substances in circulation.

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The HSE said that pink powder drugs, commonly known as tusi or pink Champagne - a synthetic substance containing a mixture of drugs like MDMA and LSD - were becoming particularly prevalent.

"People that are buying these powders possibly think that it is coloured cocaine, when in fact, it has extra risk because it could contain up to five different types of drugs in that one powder," HSE Emerging Drug Trends Manager Nicki Killeen said (via RTÉ).

Read Mixmag’s investigation into the rise of tusi here.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on X