Gardaí to be posted to Spain to tackle drugs gangs

Members of the Garda Síochána will be moving to Malaga in Spain in the coming months to join Spanish police in their efforts to thwart drug gangs.

Assistant Garda commissioner for special crime operations John O'Driscoll told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that the close rapport with Spanish police had led to the arrest of four Irish men on Sunday, May 6th.

Gardaí believe the four Irishmen arrested after drugs valued at €3.4 million were seized were working for an off-shoot of the Kinahan gang.

Detectives in Dublin and Spanish investigators are working on the theory the drugs seized near Malaga were owned by a middle-aged Dubliner with close links to the Kinahan cartel.

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Assistant commissioner O'Driscoll said that they couldn't carry out their investigations without international cooperation from police forces in Spain and the Netherlands. "Operations of this nature are intelligence based. We are working closely with the Spanish authorities."

The haul was intercepted and five arrests made after a lengthy operation involving the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau working with Spain's Policia Nacional and Guardia Civil.

The drugs were found north west of Malaga among pallets of lettuce in a truck bound for Ireland.

The four Irishmen arrested are part of a south Dublin crime gang working under the Kinahan gang member and enforcer.

Assistant commissioner O’Driscoll said that the Malaga area of Spain was an area where Irish criminals were basing themselves which was why members of an Garda Síochána would be go there in the coming months to work with Spanish police.