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Drugs worth £6.5m found in food packaging

PSNI An open crate of gold food cans sits on a cardboard base. They have a yellow and green label on them.PSNI
The suspected drugs were found during a search in Mallusk on Monday morning

A man has been arrested after a cross-border policing operation seized an estimated £6.5m (€7.8m) of suspected drugs in County Antrim.

Police discovered suspected cannabis, cocaine and ketamine in food packaging after searching a premises in Mallusk near Newtownabbey on Monday morning.

The seizure comes after a Joint Agency Task Force operation between the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Garda Síochána (Irish police force).

A 28-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of supplying Class A and Class B controlled drugs.

PSNI An opened, empty gold food can sits on the left while two rectangles of suspected drugs are wrapped in plastic on the right. All three items are placed on the concrete ground.PSNI
The seizure comes after a joint operation between the PSNI and gardaí

PSNI Det Insp Conor Sweeney said it is believed the drugs were to be supplied to various markets across the UK.

"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," he said.

"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.

Det Insp Sweeney said he is "delighted" the seizure will mean the drugs are removed from circulation and those responsible will be denied an income stream.

"However, we recognise there is still much work to be done to tackle such serious and organised criminality."