Man appears in court after gold bars worth almost €1.4m were discovered in Dublin – The Irish Times

A man has been remanded in custody in connection with an incident in which gold bars and illegal drugs worth more than €2 million were discovered over the weekend.

Farhats Bahtijevs (55), with an address at Earlsfort Court in Lucan, who gardaí believe is a Russian national, attended his hearing at Blanchardstown District Court on Monday in connection with discoveries made on September 27 at unknown locations 28 were made in the Dublin region.

He was accused of ten crimes. Two cases involved the sale of drugs and two cases involved the possession of drugs. The drugs were cocaine and MDMA.

Three counts related to money laundering, one count related to possessing a false Irish driving license and two further counts related to possessing a false Latvian passport.

Gardaí seized almost €1.4 million in gold bars, €460,000 in cash and €210,000 in suspected cocaine following a search operation in the Dublin region.

18 kilos of gold bars worth 1,375,218 euros at the current gold price were uncovered from a safe in Dublin 4. Gardaí believe it is the largest gold bullion find in the state.

Garda Seán McElroy told the court that he arrested Mr Bahtijevs at his home in Lucan on Friday, September 27. He was detained at Ronanstown Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.

Mr. Bahtijevs was released at 6:10 p.m. on September 28 and arrested again an hour and 20 minutes later.

He was later charged with the ten counts. Despite being warned, he did not respond to the individual allegations.

Defense barrister Ciaran McLoughlin said there would be no bail application and he requested that his client appear via video link at Cloverhill District Court on Friday, October 4.

Judge David McHugh remanded Mr Bahtijevs in custody until that date. A matter relating to legal aid will be postponed to another date.

Gardaí, a member of the Dublin Crime Response Team, made two further arrests in connection with the case on Monday morning. Two women aged between 30 and 50 were arrested in the Dublin area.

Both are currently being held at Garda stations in Dublin under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996 and can be held for up to seven days.