A TOTAL OF 24 people have been arrested as part of a major garda operation targeting drug dealing in the Carlow/Kilkenny region.

Of these arrests, 20 are men and four are women with 22 arrests made today and two made yesterday.

Those two arrests made yesterday evening came after gardaí carried out a surveillance operation in Kilkenny City and searched two men aged 25 and 33 years.

Gardaí seized a quantity of cocaine with an estimated street value of €17,500 and detained the two men at Kilkenny Garda station.

Follow up searches of two houses led gardaí to two more cocaine seizures that have been valued at €24,000.

After last night’s busts, a further 22 arrests were made today. A special sitting of Kilkenny District Court has been arranged for tonight when 15 men and two women will be charged with drugs offences.

Six people are still being held and will be charged at a later date while one person has been released without charge.

Gardaí say these major advances in the fight against drug gangs come as part of Operation Clave, an operation that’s been running since February.

A number of different garda divisions are involved in the operation which has so far identified forty people selling illegal drugs in the region.

A total of 94 breaches of  Misuse of Drugs Act have been observed.

Read: Four men who launched boat on River Shannon had been drinking and taking drugs >

Read: Man arrested after cannabis and cocaine worth €250,000 is seized >