Cocaine and ecstasy ‘on kitchen table’

The men were remanded in custody following the seizure of cocaine, amphetamines and ecstasy at Dunbeg Park in Hillsborough last Thursday.

Raymond Emerson, 35, Mervyn Gilfillan, 39, and Eamon Gerard Heaney, 49, were all charged with possessing the drugs with intent to supply when they appeared at Lisburn Magistrates Court.

They are to appear again in court, via videolink, on November 17.

The trio were also charged with possessing cannabis, while Mr Heaney, from Dunbeg Park, faces a further count of preventing a meter from registering an electricity supply. Solicitors acting for Mr Heaney and Mr Gilfillan, from Ballysillan Drive, Belfast, said they were not applying for bail, but the police officer told the court police were objecting to Mr Emerson’s release.

She said police executed a search warrant, issued under the misuse of drugs act, at Mr Heaney’s home. She said they found the three defendants sitting around a kitchen table which had a half kilogram bag of cocaine on it.

The police officer claimed a bag of ecstasy tablets was also on the table and that further searches uncovered a one and a half kilogram bag of amphetamines, in a bin outside, a one and a half kilogram bag of benzocaine, a commonly used cutting agent used to bulk out cocaine, and a hydraulic press with two plates.

She claimed the drugs police found were valued at £47,000 and could be worth up to £100,000 when manufactured.

“We say it’s a manufacturing house,” the police officer added. She claimed “all the equipment was there for mixing the drugs that day”.

Mr Emerson, from the Old Forge Lane in Newtownards, claimed during police interviews that he knew nothing about the drugs and had just arrived at the house to play computer games when police arrived.

The officer said police feared Mr Emerson would reoffend to recoup losses, adding that mobile phones were being examined.

The judge refused the bail application and remanded all three men into custody to appear again on November 17 by videolink.