Rural Limerick community shocked at drugs and arms find
The cottage at Anagh, Ahane, Lisnagry, where drugs and guns were found.
ONE OF the biggest issues among locals in Annagh, Lisnagry in recent years was blasting at a reopened quarry.
Explosives of a different kind - grenades and pipe-bombs - found at the weekend have now shocked the rural community.
The weapons find followed the seizure of cannabis worth around €1.5m on Friday evening. Around 80kgs of drugs were seized when detectives searched the cottage at around 9.30pm
Located close to the Tipperary border, the address may be Lisnagry but it is in the parish of Murroe-Boher. The traditional Irish cottage is situated on a quiet road to Murroe and Newport.
Local councillor, John Egan, said the size of the drugs haul is “unbelievable”.
“It just shows the amount of drugs in circulation in the country and the gardai have to be congratulated for their successful operation. They have taken a huge amount of cannabis and dangerous weaponry out of circulation.
“People are shocked that this kind of activity was happening in their midst. Nobody had any idea at all,” said Cllr Egan.
Bomb disposal experts were deployed at the cottage to make the grenades, pipe-bombs and machine guns safe for transportation safe on Sunday.
One Annagh resident told the Leader the first they heard about the weapons find was when local kids were out riding their bikes.
“They came back with the report that the bomb squad were there. We thought it must have been a mistake but after the drugs find on Friday nothing would surprise you anymore.
“We checked it out on the Leader website and it was true. You’d rarely ever see any gardai out this way because it is so quiet.
“There are only a couple of houses on that stretch of road and there is a couple of hundred yards between them. It is quite remote,” said the local resident.
They said you “wouldn’t even look twice” at the cottage where the guns and drugs were found.
“It is very small and on its own. It was sold a few years ago but we don’t know who bought it. We had no suspicions of anything, absolutely not. In retrospect, it is very worrying. What if they had got the house confused and pulled up to one of our houses,” said the person, who wished to remain anonymous.
One woman told the Limerick Leader that they were driving to Lisnagry on the stretch of road on Sunday morning when a garda car overtook them and pulled up outside a cottage.
“I was talking on my mobile at the time so I thought I was in trouble but they didn’t stop me at all. It was only later that I realised what was up. Something like this has never happened here before.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Limerick
Saturday 25 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 9 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
