Associates of the gang that murdered journalist Veronica Guerin were involved in the drugs and guns-smuggling operation uncovered in Amsterdam last Friday after a five-month Garda investigation.
The man at the centre of the investigation, John Cunningham, was a close associate of the leader of the gang that murdered Ms Guerin. Cunningham escaped from prison in September 1996 while serving a sentence for kidnapping Ms Jennifer Guinness in Dublin in 1986.
On Friday morning, Dutch police, working closely with members of the Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU), arrested Cunningham in an Amsterdam street. He was carrying a loaded pistol.
In a follow-up search at an apartment, the police found 15 firearms, including an automatic rifle, a sub-machinegun, machine pistols and semi-automatic pistols. They also found 600kg of cannabis. Two Englishmen who were renting the apartment were also arrested.
They also searched another apartment rented by Cunningham and recovered 50kg of amphetamine sulphate and 100,000 ecstasy tablets and two other handguns.
The value of the drugs hauls was put at £8 million, making it the largest seizure by the GNDU for over a year. It is the largest haul of drugs taken from Irish criminals based on the Continent.
Yesterday morning, officers from the GNDU, the money-laundering unit of the Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Criminal Assets Bureau began arresting people at addresses across Dublin. People were arrested in areas throughout the city, including Foxrock and Glenageary.
Those held include a couple from Balbriggan, Co Dublin. A man understood to be one of the key figures in the drugs distribution operation in Dublin was arrested yesterday evening.
The seven men and two women arrested in Dublin were being held at Garda stations across the city last night and were being questioned about the distribution of drugs and laundering of cash.
It is understood the gang had been smuggling drugs into Dublin from the Continent for at least a year before the GNDU investigation, known as Operation Plover, began. The operation has been led by Chief Supt Ted Murphy and Det Supt Noel White of the GNDU. The money raised through the sale of the drugs in the city had helped to pay for the huge haul recovered by the Dutch police.
It is believed Cunningham travelled to Amsterdam shortly after walking out of the Shelton Abbey open prison in Co Wicklow 1996. He was serving a 17-year sentence for the kidnapping of Ms Guinness. Two months later, his brother, Michael, was arrested at Heathrow Airport, London, as he was about to board a flight to Amsterdam. Michael had also taken part in the Guinness kidnapping and was sentenced to 14 years.
In his possession British police found a false passport bearing John Cunningham's photograph. It is now suspected that John Cunningham has spent the intervening time mixing with Irish and British criminals based between the south of Spain and Holland. Among his associates are believed to be two men from Ballyfermot who are still officially sought for questioning about the murder of Ms Guerin.
Senior Garda sources said most of the drugs recovered in Amsterdam were due to be shipped to Dublin shortly. Part of the cannabis haul was being sent to England.
The sources said yesterday they were satisfied that Operation Plover had stopped an attempt by Irish criminals to re-establish the hugely lucrative drugs supply network which had been set up by the gang responsible for Ms Guerin's murder. That network also had its main supply route based in Amsterdam.