CCTV monitored drug mixers at Kinahan cartel’s Dublin cocaine hub

The criminals running a cocaine processing and distribution hub for the Kinahan cartel in Dublin had set up a CCTV system on the premises designed to monitor people working for them mixing the drugs.

The camera system was installed to ensure those mixing cocaine with bulking agents did not steal any of the drugs.

It is believed to be the first such monitoring system at an Irish drugs mixing facility, though such surveillance of people at the lowest level of drugs gangs is very common among the narcos cartels of South America.

Garda sources said the facility uncovered on Tuesday in the Long Mile Road area was a very professionally run operation and was mixing every 1kg bail of cocaine with various agents to create a 3kg quantity of the drug. It was then being re-pressed and wrapped for distribution to other crime gangs in the Republic.

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Six people remain in custody following the seizure of cocaine with an estimated street value of €2.8 million during a raid on a business premises in Dublin being used to mix drugs.

The drugs were owned by the Kinahan cartel and were discovered at a commercial unit purporting to be a business linked to the motor trade.

During the search, an estimated 40kg of cocaine were discovered, as well as 2,000 canisters of nitric oxide and €78,000 in cash.

Two of the eight people originally arrested were released without charge on Wednesday afternoon, while the others remained in Garda custody, according to an update by the force.

At the business premises in the Long Mile Road area, believed to be used by an organised crime group as a cocaine mixing factory, gardaí also found a hydraulic drugs press, money counter, mixing agent and other paraphernalia used to mix and prepare drugs.

The operation was carried out by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau on Tuesday morning.

Seven men and one woman, ranging in age from late 20s to early 50s, were arrested in connection with drug trafficking following the searches, a Garda spokesman said.

The searches were part of an ongoing investigation and followed gardaí intercepting two vehicles on Tuesday morning in Ballyfermot and Blanchardstown.

The eight people were detained across several Garda stations in Dublin under Section 2 of Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996

On Tuesday, gardaí stopped two cars, and questioned their occupants, before searching the premises and discovering the drugs and the wholesale distribution hub on the premises.

Some of the people arrested had been under surveillance for some time and gardaí believe, given nature of the equipment and quantity of drugs found at the premises, it was being used to package and then distribute the Kinahans’ drugs all over the country to other gangs.

It is the latest find linked to the group in Dublin since their long-standing franchise in the city was effectively shut down. That Dublin based unit of the cartel – the Byrne-organised crime group led by Crumlin man Liam Byrne – collapsed after its leader was targeted by Cab and he fled to Britain. Other members of the group were jailed for activities linked to the Kinahan-Hutch feud in the wake of the Regency Hotel attack in February 2016, where Byrne’s brother, David Byrne, was shot dead.

While the Byrne group for years managed the Kinahan cartel’s drug business in Ireland, since its implosion the cartel has effectively recruited so-called “freelance” operators. These people are not part of the cartel but instead agree to work for the group, taking receipt of their drugs and distributing them. In some cases the people caught freelancing for the cartel in recent years have been foreign nationals and many of the people involved – both foreign and Irish – were not known for involvement in organised crime before they were caught.

In the last 12 months a number of major drugs finds – totalling over €20 million – were discovered in similar freelancer-run operations, with the drugs discovered owned by the Kinahans. They were found being smuggled into the Republic and also at a processing plant having already entered the state.

The details of those finds cannot be set out at this time for legal reasons but gardai said those finds strongly suggested the Kinahan cartel was continuing to smuggle drugs into the Republic – despite now being under US and UAE financial and travel sanctions – in consignments in excess of €10 million.

Commenting on the seizure, the Assistant Commissioner responsible for Organised and Serious Crime, Justin Kelly, said the operation “has shown An Garda Síochána is determined to disrupt the distribution networks of organised groups who cause harm to our communities”.