Gardaí investigate links between gang and car trade

Gardaí have broadened their investigation into links between organised crime and the motor trade, targeting the laundering of money through companies selling high-value cars.

A total of 46 vehicles, many of them Audis and BMWs, were seized in a day of action yesterday led by the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Gardaí believe some of the vehicles being sold through the two targeted garages had been imported from the UK but vehicle registration tax was not paid.

The raids in Dublin were the second time this year that gardaí have seized vehicles on suspicion that drugs money is being invested in and laundered through garages in the city.

The first set of raids took place in March when 29 vehicles were seized from a garage controlled by members of the international crime gang led from Spain by veteran criminal Christy Kinahan.

Tuesday’s raids focused on the finances and assets of a Dublin-based group of criminals led by a convicted drug dealer from Clondalkin in the west of the city.

About 20 premises, including two car garages and the offices of accountants and solicitors, were raided.

The suspect, who is in his late 20s, has been a target for the Criminal Assets Bureau for some time. The bureau believes he has been ploughing the proceeds of crime into a garage to launder money.

Payment for drugs

It is also suspected he has been using high-value vehicles as payment for drugs, a means that has previously been used by the Kinahan gang.

The chief suspect and his associates have worked in the drugs trade with the Kinahan gang, and also the remnants of the Finglas-based drugs gang once led by Martin Hyland and Eamon Dunne, both of whom were murdered.

Garda sources said the key target of yesterday’s raids has a “highly unusual” background in that he has been active in his local community as a sports coach and youth worker. He has also featured in the media in the past, advocating for more facilities for younger people.

Gardaí believe the suspect has been involved in organised crime for almost a decade, and has served at least one lengthy prison sentence for cocaine possession. He was caught with another man trying to hide and dispose of drugs as a Garda raid was under way at a property in west Dublin.

Gardaí believe that on his release he once again took his place in the drugs trade and has grown into a more significant player in recent years; a fact reflected by the size of the operation against him and his associates.

The raids on the 20 premises began from about 10am, with teams of gardaí from the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau executing search warrants granted by the courts. The Garda’s Special Crime Task Force, which is conducting a major inquiry into Dublin gangs, was also involved in the raids.

Electronic records

Gardaí said they were seeking to confiscate the proceeds of crime but also to seize paper and electronic records for cash and other assets, including property, accrued by the gang in the Republic and abroad.

A large amount of documentation, laptop computers and mobile phones were seized.

Also found and confiscated were high-value watches and other jewellery, and cash in euro and sterling.

In a separate development, drugs estimated to be worth more than €4 million have been seized by the Revenue Commissioners.

The seizure occurred on Sunday following routine profiling by Revenue’s National Profiling Centre. A vehicle importing plant machinery was searched by local customs officials in the border-midlands-west region.

Revenue seized an estimated 60 kilos of herbal cannabis; 33 kilos of cocaine; 2.2 kilos of MDMA and more than 72,000 ecstasy tablets.

A spokesman for the Garda could not say whether there were any arrests in relation to the seizure. Revenue added that “investigations are ongoing with a view to prosecution, and no further details are available at this time”.