Gardai stumbled across a “€350,000 cocaine haul” as they searched the home of a suspect in the theft of a family car with a nine-month-old baby inside.
Details of how 5kg of the alleged drugs were found in a home in North Dublin emerged last night after the carjacking suspect was arrested. It’s suspected he was stopped while driving the stolen car.
Gardai uncovered the drugs while investigating an attempted aggravated burglary at a property in Ballymun where the suspect was believed to be staying. After they had been alerted to the incident, in which there has been signs of forced entry of the home, officers entered the property and found the huge haul of suspected cocaine.
Read more: Man arrested over theft of family car after baby left on roadside in Dublin
The find was made as the child’s grandad told how she was dumped “face first” on the ground by a car thief who drove off with her in the back seat. And he said the family were “shook up” after the terrifying incident in Cabra, North Dublin.
Speaking as the car was found abandoned, the man said: “He took the baby out on the road outside the shopping centre. He took her out and laid her down face first on the ground.” The distraught grandad told how his daughter was leaving his home at around 7pm on Sunday when she ran back inside – momentarily leaving her Skoda running with her seven-year-old boy and the baby girl inside.
He added: “She came in just to grab something and next of all the little fella jumped out of the car and came in screaming. I thought he was after falling over. He just said, ‘Someone’s robbing the car, someone’s robbing the car’, and we came out and the car was gone with the baby in the back. The little fella had jumped out when he jumped in.”
The mother of the child, who is in her 20s, flagged down a passing car – and they gave chase after the thief. The grandad said: “A girl came down the road and she spotted it and she stopped and my daughter jumped in and they went after the car. They tried to chase him around but they lost him.”
The man said his daughter and grandchildren were left shaken by the robbery on St Attracta’s Road. He added: “The mother is a bit shook up about the daughter. The little fella got a bit of a fright as well. We just have to wait and see now what the gardai can do.
“They’re still investigating it and trying to find out what happened. I don’t think [my daughter]wants anything to do with it, we’re just leaving it in the hands of the police.”
News of the incident first broke yesterday and has sent shockwaves across Cabra. Tommy Macken, owner of the local Nearby shop on Fassaugh Road, opposite where the baby girl was left, said: “The shop was closed when it happened and the shutters were down. I got a phone call about it and came back to check the cameras just in case they picked anything up.
“Unfortunately they didn’t. But there’s a lot of shock around the area. You hear about it happening here, there and everywhere rather than it happening on your own doorstep. But Cabra is great. When somebody is in trouble we all unite and we help and back up each other and this is no different.”
Meanwhile, a woman whose house is in front of where the baby was left told how three women came to the child’s aid. She added: “Three girls came up and took the baby. I didn’t see anything after that. They had the baby in their arms and they were brilliant with it.
“I was inside feeding my granddaughter when I saw the girls running and screaming. That’s all I could see. It was just chaos like.”
Last night, gardai confirmed that a man had been arrested over the incident. A spokesperson added: “A male in his 40s has been arrested for an alleged offence and he is currently being detained at Mountjoy Garda station.”
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