LAST UPDATE | 23 May 2019

A TOTAL OF 18 people have been arrested in Drogheda as part of a garda operation targeting criminality in the area.

Operation Stratus also saw 34 searches carried out and the seizure of seven vehicles.

A total of 30 searches were conducted at houses in the district and four separate searches were carried out under warrants issued under the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1977 as amended. 

16 people were arrested on foot of outstanding warrants and two on suspicion of the commission of criminal acts within the Drogheda district in recent weeks.

A 23-year-old man has since been charged and released on bail. 

Gardaí from the Road Policing Unit also seized a total of seven vehicles under Section 41 of the Road Traffic Act, 1994 along with the issuing of 38 on-the-spot penalty notices for various road traffic offences. 

One one was arrested under the Public Order Act. 

With reporting by Hayley Halpin