Gardaí seized over €1.5 million worth of suspected drugs and nearly €40,000 in cash when a man (aged 20) was arrested after searches in two counties

Gardaí have seized over €1.5 million worth of suspected drugs, a large sum of cash and arrested a man after searches in two counties on Saturday.

The man, in his 20s, was an occupant of an intercepted vehicle in Co Meath.

He was arrested at the scene and taken to Ashbourne Garda Station, where he is currently being held under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act 1996.

Searches were carried out in County Kildare and Meath on Saturday 7th May as part of Operation Tara.

At around 11.30am Gardaí intercepted a vehicle on the M1 motorway in Co Meath.

A search of this vehicle found and confiscated cash amounting to approximately €39,750.

At around 12pm on Saturday, a number of properties in the Newbridge area of ​​Co Kildare were raided as part of this investigation.

During a search of one of these properties, around 420,000 euros in suspected cocaine and 1.12 million euros in suspected cannabis were seized.

Suspicious compound drugs and other drug paraphernalia were also confiscated. All drugs seized are now sent to Forensic Science Ireland for analysis.

The investigations are ongoing.