DRUGS with an estimated street value of €22,000 were seized in Union Hall on Wednesday evening of this week.

Members of the West Cork divisional drugs unit carried out a search of a house under warrant at about 6pm.

Supt Ger O’Mahony said cannabis herb and nine cannabis plants were recovered and bagged for forensic analysis.

The amount of cannabis herb is estimated to be three-quarters of a kilo, which the Clonakilty-based garda boss  described as ‘significant.’

Supt O’Mahony told The Southern Star: ‘The West Cork divisional drugs unit continues to be highly proactive in detecting illegal drugs activity throughout the region.’

The haul came just days after the figures for narcotics seized in Bantry this year were revealed as having hit the €500,000 mark by last June, according to another senior garda.

 A number of the recent drug detections made in the town were of ‘regional or national significance’ according to the district’s recently-appointed Supt Ronan Kenneally.

The half-a-million-euro figure included the €300,000 worth of drugs that was seized in nine separate raids in January. In April, an additional €6,000 worth of cocaine was taken from a vehicle stopped at a checkpoint in Newtown, just outside the town.

There were several other smaller seizures, followed by two major hauls within a three-day period at the beginning of this month, Supt Kenneally revealed to The Southern Star.

Supt Kenneally confirmed that the Bantry drug seizures were targeting a number of individuals – ‘some of which are of regional or national significance’ – but he declined to comment further, apart from saying: ‘The investigation is ongoing and, for operational reasons, we cannot discuss the cases in detail.’

Supt Kenneally pointed out that the regular reports in The Southern Star are a sign that the gardaí are having considerable success in tackling the possession, sale and supply of narcotics. ‘Gardaí throughout the western division are committed to an enforcement policy that is in accordance with the National Policing Plan of An Garda Siochana,’ he said.