by Louise McCarthy

AN ENNISCORTHY man charged with smuggling over €1million euros of drugs has been refused bail.

36 year old Chris Connaughton, St Patrick’s Place, Enniscorthy, was among three other men, who are from Birmingham, arrested at Newry over the weekend. Connaughton, originally from the United Kingdom, and in a relationship with an Enniscorthy woman, was arrested following a joint PSNI, National Crime Agency (NCA) and An Gardai Siochana operation tracking an alleged triangular shipment of cannabis with Spanish, English and Irish connections. He appeared at Newry Magistrates Court on Saturday.

The alleged courier was Connaughton, who has been refused bail because of objections from a PSNI detective stating that he had been ‘signed up’ by his co-accused in a Wexford bar to collect the illicit merchandise.

The drug shipment was said to be under the guise of ‘PNG FOODS-Newry.’

It is alleged that a van driven by Connaughton was picked up at a shopping complex and brought to a ‘unit’ in the nearby south Armagh village of Camlough, where the 167kg of suspected cannabis was loaded on by a forklift truck.

The court heard that several pallets of orange juice cartons shipped in from Spain encased the “class B drugs” allegedly found by the NCA.

The four accused were remanded to appear at Newry magistrates on April 29.

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