GARDAI in Dublin have been granted a court order allowing for a three month seizure of about £20,000 found in a car in the Ronanstown area of the city yesterday.
Det Sgt Michael Sullivan of the Garda's National Drug Squad, told Judge Gillian Hussey at Kilmainham District Court that gardai believed the money was connected to a drug trafficking operation, and that an investigation was continuing.
The seizure is part of a wider operation against some of the State's major drug criminals, including people suspected of being involved in the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin.
Detectives in the Guerin investigation team, based in Lucan, have already seized a similar "substantial" sum of money in a series of searches, in addition to a small quantity of cannabis.
On Monday gardai searched the Co Kildare home of Mr John Gilligan (44), a convicted criminal who says he now makes his money from professional gambling.
Gardai from the drugs unit and the fraud squad seized a "substantial" number of documents, believed to be financial records, from the equestrian centre.
Six people were arrested by the team last week under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act, but were later released.
Gardai say they have narrowed their original list of more than 40 suspects for the murder to about half that level.