Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 10 Mar 1992

Vol. 417 No. 1

Written Answers. - Heroin Seizure.

Tony Gregory

Ceist:

156 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Justice the reason the gardaí have not now pursued the seizure of heroin worth £400,000 at a flat in Palmerston Park in Dublin with a person (details supplied) who has returned to this jurisdiction.

Minister for Justice (Mr. Flynn)

The Deputy appears to be confusing two different incidents, but I shall endeavour to clarify the situation for him as best I can.

There was a major heroin seizure in Palmerstown in 1986 — it occurred in Palmerstown Place rather than Palmerstown Park but I am assuming that this is the incident referred to in the Deputy's question. I have to refute the suggestion that the gardaí did not pursue this case. In fact the Garda authorities have informed me that the matter was the subject of a full investigation resulting in a successful prosecution before the courts and that a person — who is not the person named by the Deputy — is now serving a significant custodial sentence for this offence. If the Deputy has any evidence that another person may have been involved in this offence he should bring it immediately to the attention of the Garda authorities for investigation.

The person named by the Deputy was arrested and charged following a heroin seizure in 1983 — this seizure, however, occurred in Milltown, not in Palmerstown. The seizure, while sizeable, was not on the scale of the subsequent Palmerstown seizure — I understand that the heroin was valued at £30,000 to £40,000, as against the figure of £400,000 mentioned by the Deputy and an estimated £250,000 in the Palmerstown case.

The person accused following the Milltown seizure absconded before the case came to trail. When he returned to this country recently, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that anolle prosequi be entered in respect of the 1983 ofference — he was, however, charged with a more recent drugs offence and is now serving a term of imprisonment in respect of that offence.