Londonderry: Two appear in court over cocaine seizure worth £50k

Two men have appeared in court after suspected class A drugs with an estimated street value of £50,000 were seized by police in Londonderry.

Dominic McGrath, 46, from Limehill Road in Pomeroy, County Tyrone, and Aaron Drever, 43, of Drumadd Green in County Armagh, appeared in court on Thursday.

They are both charged with possessing cocaine and having the drugs with intent to supply on 20 December.

Mr McGrath is further charged with motoring offences on the same date.

He is accused of driving while disqualified, driving with no insurance and failing to give police details of the vehicle's owner.

A police officer connected both the accused to the charges and opposed bail in the case of Mr McGrath. There was no bail application for Mr Drever who was remanded in custody to appear again in January.

Londonderry Magistrates' Court was told that a van driven by Mr McGrath was stopped at a checkpoint on the Foyle Bridge on Wednesday.

The driver was found to be disqualified and a subsequent search uncovered cocaine with street value of £50,000, the court was told.

The police witness said that the packaging the cocaine was in found in was similar to that found following a cocaine seizure in County Armagh earlier this month.

A defence solicitor said that he believed his client could be managed by bail conditions.

Deputy district Judge Paul Copeland said this was not a suitable case for bail and remanded Mr McGrath in custody to appear again in January.