€8.4M COKEPIT

Arrests as cops seize haul flown in to Ireland on private plane

-  JOHN HAND

THE Kinahan cartel flew a huge €8.4million cocaine haul into Ireland on a private plane - but gardai were waiting to pounce.

Detectives seized 120kg of the drug before it could be passed on to a network of local criminal gangs.

The aircraft travelled from France to Longford on Thursday evening. Armed cops later stopped two cars and arrested two men, including the suspected pilot.

A source said: "The Kinahan cartel are behind this."

Kinahan's wings clipped

€8.4million haul of cocaine flown to Ireland seized from car. 'Pilot' & second man held before drugs get passed to network of dealers

AN €8.4million cocaine haul flown into Ireland by the Kinahan cartel was to be passed on to a network of gangs, sources told the Irish Mirror last night.

The Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau dealt another major blow to the cartel on Thursday, the third such interception in just over a month.

The operation was launched after a light aircraft landed in a commercial airfield in Abbeyshrule, Co Longford, flown from Dieppe-Saint-Aubin Airport in France, just before 5.25pm.

Gardai believe the cocaine was unloaded and put into a car which then travelled in convoy with another vehicle.

But officers from the DOCB, supported by armed cops from the Emergency Response Unit, stopped the cars in the Lough Owel area of Co Westmeath.

In one of the vehicles, six holdall bags and one suitcase were found stuffed with 120kgs of cocaine.

Two men, aged 40 and 54 including the suspected pilot - were arrested and taken to Ashbourne Garda Station in Co Meath on suspicion of drug trafficking.

In follow-up searches on Thursday evening and Friday morning, the aircraft was seized.