FOUR men will appear at Belfast Magistrates Court on Friday morning following the seizure of cannabis with an estimated street value of £1 million was seized in a police operation on Wednesday night.
Properties on the Springfield Road and Shore Road, as well as two vehicles, were searched by police as 50 kilos of the Class B drug were uncovered. Two vehicles were also stopped on the M2 motorway heading out of Belfast, close to the Moneynick junction in an operation linked to the activities of a Triad gang.
The four men, one understood to be from North Africa and three from South East Asia, were arrested during the operation. They are aged 38, 29, 29 and 19.
Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton described the haul as “significant” and added that it is the “latest part of an ongoing investigation into a South East Asian crime gang.”
“Organised crime gangs like this group make huge amounts of money from the illegal trade,” he said.
“Some people think that buying and using cannabis is harmless, that’s simply not the case. Cannabis remains the most used drug by persons in treatment in Northern Ireland for drug addiction.”
