Seventeen people are appearing at a late sitting of Kilkenny District Court tonight charged with drugs offences.

Six others have been charged and bailed to appear in court again at a later date and one person has been released without charge.

It follows the arrest of 24 people today and yesterday, as part of Operation Clave – an ongoing operation into the sale and supply of controlled substances in the Kilkenny Carlow division.

The arrests followed separate searches in which cocaine with an estimated street value of over 40 thousand euro was seized.