Man appears in court and two women arrested over €1.4m gold bullion and cocaine seizure

LAST UPDATE | 4 hrs ago

A MAN HAS appeared in court in connection with a seizure of almost €1.4 million worth of gold bullion, as well as more than €600,000 worth of cash and drugs, over the weekend.

Farhats Bathijevs, 55, who has an address in Earlsfort Court in Lucan, appeared before Blanchardstown District Court today after he was arrested on Friday.

18kg of gold bars and coins, valued at about €1.375 million, were discovered in a vault in the south of the city.

Around €460,000 in cash and €210,000 worth of suspected cocaine and ecstasy were seized after being discovered at a property in the capital.

Bathijevs is facing a number of charges.

Three relate to money laundering and two to theft and fraud relating to false documents.

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He is also charged with two counts of possession of drugs and two counts of supply of cocaine and ecstasy.

Garda Sean McElroy told the court that the accused was arrested at Ronanstown Garda Station on Friday shortly after 7pm.

Defence solicitor Ciaran McLaughlin said there was no application for bail.

An application for legal aid was made, but there was a request for statement of means and a decision on the legal aid will be made at a future date.

District Judge David McHugh remanded Bathijevs into custody, to appear via video link from Cloverhill prison on Friday.

Two women were also arrested over the seizure this morning as part of ongoing investigations by Gardaí from the Dublin Crime Response Team.

The two women, aged in their 30s and 50s, were taken into custody in the Dublin area.

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