FOUR PEOPLE are being questioned by gardaí after cocaine, cannabis and heroin valued at almost €4 million was seized in a series of Garda raids across Dublin since Monday.
All of the drugs finds were made during an investigation headed by the Garda's Organised Crime Unit (OCU) and detectives in Crumlin into one of the country's most violent drugs gangs.
The gang, which is based in Crumlin and Drimnagh, has been engaged in a turf war with another crime gang based in the same Dublin suburbs. The feud has cost at least 12 lives directly since the start of the decade.
The operation resulting in the drugs finds targeted locations in Foxrock, Castleknock, Templeogue and Clondalkin where members of the gang have moved in recent months to hide from gardaí and from rival gang members.
In the part of the operation carried out by the OCU, armed gardaí moved in on a location at Spawell, Templeogue, as drugs were being moved from one vehicle to another on Tuesday afternoon.
About 13kgs of heroin was found, with an estimated street value of €2.6 million. Two men in their 20s, both from Dublin, were arrested at the scene.
They were taken for questioning to Terenure and Rathmines Garda stations under section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act.
During a follow-up search of an apartment on Nangor Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, gardaí found 14kg of cocaine valued at €1.12 million and 4kg of cannabis, valued at about €32,000. Assorted drug paraphernalia was also found at the apartment.
A series of raids carried out by the Crumlin detective unit and targeting the same gang as the OCU's operation also yielded quantities of drugs.
On Monday night members of the unit raided a house in Foxrock Green, where they found a Glock pistol, along with quantities of cocaine and cannabis. Two people were arrested at the property, a man and a woman both in their 20s. They were detained under section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act and were taken for questioning to Crumlin and Sundrive Road Garda stations.
During a follow-up search in the Auburn Avenue area of Castleknock, Dublin 15, on Tuesday morning, gardaí found cocaine with an estimated value of about €120,000.
The drugs recovered in all of the raids belonged to the same gang. It is led by a man regarded as one of the most prolific dealers in Ireland.