Two men have been arrested following the discovery of cannabis worth €140,000 in Louth.
During the search a cultivation site was discovered and cannabis plants with an estimated street value of €140,000 (pending analysis) were seized.
The men were arrested at the scene and are currently detained under section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996, at Portlaoise Garda Station.
A man in Moscow had his Audi SUVworth $92,000 stolen after he jumped into a Moscow river to save the occupants of a car which had crashed through a fence and plunged into the water.
The driver of the Volvo lost control and the car, which was carrying two people, crushed a fence and fell into the Yauza River in central Moscow.
A man driving by in his Audi SUV saw the incident, and jumped to the rescue.
A young woman had freed herself from the sinking car but the driver and her 27-year-old husband were trapped inside and drowned.
As the man desperately tried to free the men, a thief drove away in the his Audi, which also contained his clothes and ID.
Investigations are continuing.
Gardaí are looking for any available information on a Dutch national, Morgan Schreurs, who is wanted for murder and may be living in Dublin city.
Schreurs, approximately 39 years old, is currently sought by Belgian Authorities for the murder of a Belgian National in Brussels in November 1999.
At the time police received intelligence that Schruers was working on a building site in Munich. The suspect was later believed to have moved to Dublin where he worked in pubs around the Dublin city.
In 2002, gardaí in Pearse Street and Store Street carried out extensive enquiries around the area to identify Schreurs who was believed to be working as a barman and part-time as a DJ using the stage name DJ Morgandroid, which he had also used in Munich.
According to information received in 2001, Schreurs had been treated in hospital in Munich when he was allegedly informed that he had liver damage that may require an operation.
In 2004, further leads were investigated by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation which indicated that Schreurs had been found in possession of an Irish persons VISA card with no valid reason during his time in Munich. Due to the difficulty in contacting the card holder at the time Gardaí were unable to clarify whether or not Schreurs was known to him.
Schreurs is known to speak Dutch, German, English, and French. He is approximately 6″ in height with a scar over his left eye and was born on May 15, 1973. It is possible that he may use an alias, however no specific details are known regarding any other names or identities used.
A European Arrest Warrant has been issued for the subject in relation to this investigation.
Schreurs has been highlighted as part of INTERPOL’s Operation INFRA-RED 2012. This operation is an international joint police operation ensuring cooperation between law enforcement officers from around the world in order to locate and arrest high-profile criminals. The operation focuses on serious cases involving such crimes as murder, child sexual abuse, rape, fraud, corruption, drug trafficking and money-laundering.
INTERPOL is now conducting the international media phase of this Operation INFRA-RED 2012. During this phase, INTERPOL’s General Secretariat highlighted twenty-five high profile targets from a list of over 500 target subjects which have been collected from 57 countries world-wide, covering six continents. During this phase of the international fugitive operation, members of the public are invited to provide any relevant information which may assist in locating some of the world’s most wanted people.
Gardaí are today renewing their appeal for assistance in tracing the whereabouts of Dean Reynolds, 28, missing from Rathfarnham, Co Dublin since May 19.
He was last seen at Ballycullen, Rathfarnham at around 7.40 am on that date.
Dean is described as being 6′ in height, of medium build with mousey-brown hair and blue eyes. Dean’s family and the gardaí are seriously concerned for his safety.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Rathfarnham on 01 – 6666500, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
A family that has not paid rent for the past 18 months is finally to be evicted, a judge has ruled.
Declan Fitzpatrick, solicitor for South Dublin County Council, told the Circuit Civil Court that taxi driver David McGowan and his wife, Catherine, had previously faced eviction on four occasions but the local authority had always relented.
He said that in January last they had obtained a District Court order for their eviction from a house in Cushlawn, Killinarden, Tallaght, Dublin, where they live with their three adult children.
Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Matthew Deery, said today that the McGowans, who owe more than €20,000 in rent arrears, had appealed the order to the Circuit Court.
Mr Fitzpatrick said no rent was being paid and a number of repayment arrangements that had been reached between the council and the McGowans had been broken.
“With a housing waiting list of 10,000 applicants for accommodation the council has to proceed with the eviction,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.
Aisling Ni Bhroin, senior staff officer in the County Council’s Housing Department, told the court that Mrs McGowan and her three children had weekly income of €1,180 on top of the undisclosed earnings of her taxi driver husband and the children’s father.
Ms Ni Bhroin said a working daughter had a wage of €542 a week; another working daughter was receiving €262 a week maternity benefit; Mrs McGowan was receiving a weekly disability allowance of €188 and the couple’s son was on a weekly €188 job search payment.
She said Mr McGowan was self employed but had failed to furnish documentary evidence of what he was earning. The weekly rent was €169 which had been reduced from €188 following an assessment.
Judge Deery said Mr and Mrs McGowan had a number of previous evictions cancelled in the past and Mr McGowan had failed to furnish appropriate details of his income.
There were five adults in the house and it had been a year-and-a-half since any rent had been paid despite their receiving money from the state.
“While I have sympathy for Mr McGowan and his wife the order of the District Court has got to be affirmed,” Judge Deery said.
He granted the McGowans a four months’ stay from today on the eviction order.
Two men accused of murdering honeymooner Michaela McAreavey were taken to the Mauritius hotel where she was found dead as the jury toured the site.
Security was tight outside the Lux hotel, formerly named Legends, as ex-employees Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandip Moneea were driven inside to observe the jurors’ private visit to the crime scene and other relevant locations.
They were accompanied by judge Mr Justice Prithviraj Fecknah and defence and prosecution lawyers on the half-day exercise at the gated beachside resort in the north of the island at Grand Gaube.
Barristers for both accused had made a joint motion to court requesting that the jury visit take place.
The six men and three women of the jury were shown the since-renumbered room 1025 where the daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football boss Mickey Harte was found strangled last January.
They were also taken to the nearby poolside restaurant where she lunched with her husband John before her death.
The prosecution claim she left him there to return to the room to fetch biscuits for her tea and walked in on Treebhoowoon and Moneea stealing. They deny murder.
Police officers patrolled outside the main gate and on the shore line in a bid to ensure no unauthorised people gained access to the hotel during the visit.
The jury were also shown 10 other rooms that have been mentioned during the previous 20 days of the trial and other significant hotel sites and landmarks referred to in court.
Legends was renamed the Lux Hotel following the murder.
State prosecutor Mehdi Manrakhan and defence lawyers Rama Valayden, representing Moneea, and Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, for Treebhoowoon, were in attendance on site.
The jurors, judge, lawyers and associated court officials left the Supreme Court in Port Louis at around 10.30am for the one-hour trip north.
They returned to court in the afternoon when Mr Manrakhan officially closed the case for the prosecution.
Tomorrow will be taken up solely with legal argument in the absence of the jury.
Ciarán Tobin was sentenced in his absence to three years in prison for negligent driving over an incident in April 2000 when his car mounted the footpath and hit a brother and sister, aged 5 and 2, who died at the scene.
Hungary initially sought his extradition in 2004 however the courts here refused this as they found he had not “fled” Hungary after the incident, as was then required under Irish law.
In 2009 the legislation was changed here to remove that requirement.
Hungary sought Mr Tobin’s extradition again and the High Court ruled that he should be surrendered.
Mr Tobin appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled this morning by a majority of three judges to two that this second request was an abuse of process and it found that a Hungarian national could not be extradited to Ireland if the situation was reversed.
Mr Tobin had offered to serve his sentence in this country and voluntarily went into custody in November last year. However, the court heard there was no provision under Irish law to allow him to serve his sentence here.
Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman called this a unique and unprecedented case and an appalling tragedy.
He said the case illustrated how a perfectly ordinary person of good character in a moment and without any intentional or malicious act on his part can become a suspect, then a convict, sentenced to three years in a foreign jail.
He said the case was relevant to anyone who travels abroad and especially anyone who drives a car while abroad.
He also referred to the “grossly abnormal period” during which Mr Tobin, who is a father of two children, has been under threat of forcible separation from his family.
The court ordered his release from custody forthwith. Mr Tobin left with his wife, without making any comment.
John Lynch, 33, with an address at Church View in Boyle was convicted of the manslaughter of 5-year-old Marie Connolly-Keane at her home on the Tarmon Road in Boyle in October last year.
Mr. Lynch was convicted on 3 charges related to the arson attack on the Connolly home on the Termon Road in Boyle on October 3rd last year.
He was sentenced to 13 years for the manslaughter of Marie Connolly-Keane who perished in the fire despite attempts by her father Richard to bring her to safety.
He was also convicted of arson with intent to cause harm and assault causing harm to Marie’s father Richard who will be unable to walk unaided again following the fire.
He was given an 8-year prison term for each of these convictions with all sentences to run concurrently.
In delivering his judgement at Roscommon Circuit Court this morning, Judge Anthony Hunt said he was not in a position to impose the maximum or an 18-year sentence due to the mitigating circumstances to the case noting Mr. Lynch’s guilty plea and his expression of remorse, however little comfort they bring to the Keane and Connolly families.
He stated that in all his years on the bench across the country that he had not witnessed the circumstances of unique horror as had arisen in this case and that the enormity of Mr. Lynch’s actions must have severe consequences.
Speaking to Shannonside News after the hearing Marie’s parents Treasa Keane and Richard Connolly said they were happy with the sentence.
They said they have received justice for Marie and from today she will rest in peace.
The father of an Irish student who has gone missing in Poland has said that it is totally out of character for his son not to contact the family.
James Nolan, 21, from Blessington in Co Wicklow was last seen on Saturday night in Bydoszcz, a town about 130 kilometres from Poznan.
The third-year engineering student had been travelling with friends in a camper van to see Ireland play in Euro 2012.
He was due to return to Ireland on Thursday, but got separated from his friends last Saturday night and was reported missing by them on Sunday.
His father Jimmy has appealed to anyone who thinks they can help in the search for James to come forward.
“If you see him, if you know of him, if you hear of hear of him, anything, just try and contact someone – the Garda station, anything at all,” he said.
“Whatever it takes.”
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Gardaí have today arrested a man in connection with a fatal knife attack in Dublin.
The victim, a man in his early 20s, was injured when a row broke out on Fortlawn Avenue in Blanchardstown shortly after 1.30am this morning.
He suffered serious knife wounds and was brought to Connolly Hospital by ambulance, but was pronounced dead a short time later.
A man, also in his early 20s, is now being questioned at Blanchardstown garda station, under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.
The scene has been sealed off for a technical examination and gardaí are appealing for any witnesses to come forward.