Unaccompanied learner driver is caught speeding with €40k of drugs in car
Laois Roads Policing Unit stopped the vehicle yesterday evening, Wednesday, June, 11, and following a vehicle search discovered both Cocaine and Cannabis.
Car and quantity of drugs seized on M7 yesterday. Photo: An Garda Síochána Laois/Offaly
Gardaí in Laois have seized €40,000 worth of drugs after stopping a speeding car on the M7 driven by an unaccompanied learner driver.
Laois Roads Policing Unit stopped the vehicle yesterday evening, Wednesday, June, 11, and following a vehicle search discovered both Cocaine and Cannabis.
Car and quantity of drugs seized on M7 yesterday. Photo: An Garda Síochána Laois/Offaly
Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 13 2025
The vehicle was seized and the driver was arrested, charged and brought before Portlaoise District Court this morning.
Meanwhile in Offaly, the Roads Policing Unit detected a driver travelling at 106kmh in a 50kmh zone.
The driver was arrested, charged and is due to appear in court. An Garda Síochána in Laois/Offaly have urged driver to 'please slow down'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
5 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
How a dog called Fern solved the mystery of where Cork woman Tina Satchwell had been hidden
When Fern made a positive detection for the presence of human remains in the home of Richard and Tina Satchwell, the dog helped unravel the mystery of where the missing woman had been hidden for more than six years. After Richard Satchwell was sentenced to life in prison for the 2017 murder of his wife, the role of Fern in the case and the absence of a cadaver dog in An Garda Síochána's dog unit has raised hackles, led to soundbites and sparked debate on why the Irish force had to rely on the PSNI's only cadaver dog. Use of Fern in October 2023 for the search of Ms Satchwell's Youghal home was not the only time the services of a cadaver dog were requested by gardaí during the probe into her disappearance. The first time was in 2018, when Ronnie, a dog from Britain, was brought to Castlemartyr for a woodland search after information led gardaí to concentrate on the area. Mick Swindells has worked on a number of other high-profile cases in Ireland, including a search of the Slieve Bloom mountains for Fiona Pender in 2014. Ronnie's handler, Mick Swindells, a former British police officer, recalls staying in Garryvoe during the 2018 search, and says the approach came from gardaí because of his work with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, set up to find the bodies of people murdered and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles. He has worked on a number of other high-profile cases in Ireland, including a search of the Slieve Bloom mountains for Fiona Pender in 2014. She has been missing since 1996 and her case was recently upgraded to a murder investigation. He became involved in human remains detection in 1992 when working with the dogs section in Lancashire police. He has handled five cadaver dogs in his career, but also trained dogs in Britain as well as in the Malaysian and Spanish fire services, and Spanish police. He pointed out training dogs to find human remains in water is different to training them to find buried remains 'because they can smell scent coming through the water'. For land searches, probes are used to prod the ground to release any odours which could indicate if human remains are buried in the area. He stressed, however, that the manner of a person's death can have an impact on the scent, explaining: 'Somebody who has been poisoned will decompose differently to somebody who has shot or stabbed, if there is trauma. "Indeed, the size of a person and the type of soil they have been put in also changes decomposition — also, if there were clothes, or they were wrapped in a shower curtain or carpet or that kind of thing.' He said in most cases, people do not have time to bury remains very deep — although he acknowledged cases like the Tina Satchwell case were different. During the recent trial, the jury heard her body had been buried unusually deep for a 'clandestine burial', with 84cm depth to the bottom of the burial site. 'He [Satchwell] was in his own house so he controlled the environment, whereas when you are burying bodies in woods … even the IRA didn't bury bodies deep and they had control of the areas. In his own house, he could take his time, he wasn't going to be disturbed,' Mr Swindells said. In his work, cadaver dogs are trained on pigs. He explains why: 'If you train a dog to find Semtex and you hide a block of Semtex, it won't change. But, obviously, a dead body evolves and is always changing. So we have to try to train the dog to find a body from, for example, one day after death to 25 years after death when it is just pure skeletal. So you have to train the dog on every aspect of the decomposition and the only way you can do that is by using pigs. It is similar decomposition.' A pig dressed in a coat and placed in a grave. Mick Swindells says the coat has been put on the pig to simulate a real concealment, for the purpose of training a cadaver dog. He says pigs used for the purpose of training dogs to find human remains are buried in the ground for many years. 'We had a site in the UK where we buried pigs in 1992 and every so often we went back there with dogs if we are looking at a really old case to refresh them. Pigs are the closest thing to human because they are omnivores — pigs eat meat and vegetables the same as we do. They have the same skin type — the same number of layers of skin as we do, the same digestive system as we do.' He says the normal police course for training dogs to find human remains is eight weeks: 'The basic course is eight weeks but the dog is always learning after that.' The Search and Rescue Dog Association Ireland (North) currently has four specially trained cadaver dogs in Northern Ireland. The association's Clair O'Connor says: 'We would use archaeological bone or human blood in training. We get blood from donors.' The association, which was founded in 1978 by Cork-born Dr Neil Powell, began working in the area of human remains detection in the 1990s, after being tasked to a search for two cousins who drowned in a lake. Wexford-based Rachell Morris owns K9 Detect and Find Ireland. She and Clair O'Connor both say they have had requests to aid An Garda Síochána over the years with searches. 13/06/'25 Gardaí bring a cadaver dog into a house on Monastery Walk, Clondalkin, where they are continuing their search in the investigation into the death of American woman, Annie McCarrick, who disappeared in 1993. Picture: Colin Keegan/ Collins However, on Monday, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said there were no plans at the moment to acquire a cadaver dog for the force . He described such a dog as a very specialised resource which is not out every day working, as is the case for drugs, firearms or money dogs. He also said a cadaver dog has only been used by the force three times in the seven years he has been commissioner. It emerged at Tuesday afternoon's meeting of the Oireachtas justice committee that a cadaver dog was used in the search for Kerry farmer Mike Gaine in the early weeks of his disappearance. Mick Swindells believes the addition of a cadaver dog to An Garda Síochána's existing dog unit would not be a big cost. 'If you train them to forensics and blood and semen also, you are not restricting it to murders because you have got assault cases, rape cases, that they can be used for as well.' He rejected minister for justice Jim O'Callaghan's assertion that the working life of a cadaver dog was just three years. He said police dogs operate until they are no longer fit enough to work, with many having a work life of up to seven years, typically retiring at about nine years old. This was echoed by Clair O'Connor, who said: 'All of our search dogs would work until they are aged eight to 10 years old.' A Garda spokeswoman confirmed the force has never had its own cadaver dog. She said there were 28 dogs attached to the Garda Dog Unit, inclusive of the Southern and North Western Dog Units. There are currently four dogs in training. The statement said: 'The Garda Dog Unit has dogs trained in three distinct disciplines, namely general purpose, drugs/cash/firearms detection, and explosive detection. Dogs are trained in one discipline.' In relation to cadaver dogs, the statement said: 'The operational demand for victim recovery dogs is currently sufficiently provided for through third-party contractors or through mutual assistance with the Police Service of Northern Ireland with whom An Garda Síochána has excellent working relations.' Read More Review of Tina Satchwell case to include if cadaver dog should have been used in 2017 search — Harris
Irish Examiner
13 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Cork mother hopes son will go into rehabilitation after withdrawing domestic complaint against him
A woman who complained last week to gardaí about her 30-year-old son putting her in fear by getting intoxicated and ordering her to get out of her own house has gone back to the gardaí to withdraw her complaints. Sergeant Ailsing Murphy confirmed that the complainant had gone back to An Garda Síochána and made a follow-up statement withdrawing her initial complaint. Judge Mary Dorgan agreed to release the young man from custody – where he has been for the past week. The defendant's mother said the family agreed that what he needed more than anything was to get into rehabilitation. They are hopeful he will do so very soon. It was alleged that, as well as breaching a Domestic Violence Order, he also grabbed her handbag and stole her purse. Now the charges of breaching the order and theft have been withdrawn. There remains against him a shoplifting charge and a public order offence of being intoxicated to such an extent that he was a danger to himself or others. Garda David O'Driscoll testified in an objection to bail last week at an in-camera hearing of Cork District Court where the parties cannot be identified. On that occasion he said: 'It is alleged she was sitting in the living room. He had been asleep and he came down, intoxicated, under the influence of drugs. He began hitting the walls in the room and turned over the coffee table. He was shouting at his mother to f*** off and get out. 'As she was leaving, he pulled her handbag and stole a black purse from her handbag with about €20.' Eddie Burke, solicitor, said the defendant was intent on getting into rehabilitation.
Extra.ie
15 hours ago
- Extra.ie
Man arested in connection with Annie McCarrick investigation released without charge
A man who was held in connection with the investigation into the murder of missing Annie McCarrick has been released without charge. It comes as the searches at a house in Clondalkin continued on Friday in connection with the probe, with a cadaver dog attending the scene. A man in his 60s was arrested on Thursday in connection with Ms McCarrick's murder, which comes 32 years after she was last seen. He has since been released without charge. Annie McCarrick. Pic: An Garda Síochána A Garda spokesperson said: 'Gardaí continue to investigate the disappearance and murder of Annie McCarrick in March 1993. 'The male aged in his 60s who was arrested on the morning of 12th June, 2025 and detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 has been released without charge.' They added: 'The searches in relation to this investigation remain ongoing and are being supported by a cadaver dog from an external agency. 'Searches will continue over the weekend.' Gardaí searching a residence in Clondalkin in connection with the disappearance of Annie McCarrick. Pic: Colin Keegan/Collins Photos RTÉ report that the cadaver dog is on loan from the PSNI, and was introduced as part of the search, which includes a mini dagger, concrete saw, and kango hammer to excavate the home, and its front and back garden. Ms McCarrick, who was 26 at the time of her disappearance, had lived in Ireland after moving to Dublin from the USA in 1993. She was last seen alive on March 26, 1993, and was reported missing two days later, with her case being upgraded to a murder investigation on the 30th anniversary of her disappearance. Annie McCarrick. Pic: An Garda Síochána The development comes not long after the lawyer of Ms McCarrick's father said that he is 'very surprised' that an arrest was made. 'I'm very surprised because I'm very interested to know [who was arrested],' Mr Griffith told Morning Ireland. 'I've got some feelers out on this, because I'm connected with lawyers in Dublin, as to why it took 32 years and as to what the probable cause was that the fellow who's being detained, the reason why he was detained. 'Obviously, something came up very recently, because this person was a person of interest at the beginning.' When asked if he had given up hope about a possible breakthrough surrounding Ms McCarrick's disappearance, Mr Griffith said that he was always 'very optimistic' that the truth of what happened would eventually emerge, but added that he'll wait and see what the next developments are.
