Woman held and €1.7m seized in Kinahan raids
Five detained over the weekend
A WOMAN was arrested yesterday as part of an Garda investigation into the money-laundering wing of the Kinahan drugs gang.
It follows the arrests of four men and the seizure of €1.7million during raids in Dublin and Wexford on Saturday.
The woman, who is 39, is the latest person to be arrested after officers from the Garda Drug and Organised Crime Bureau searched cars and homes in an attempt to break the Kinahan’s money smuggling operations.
The gang, which makes millions of euro a month, mostly from heroin and cocaine, is believed to move the money out of the country through Wexford.
The Garda operation began at 10.45am on Saturday when officers stopped two vehicles off Clonard Road in Wexford town.
Three men aged 47, 38 and 29 were arrested on suspicion of money-laundering offences.
It is believed €1.2million was recovered after officers searched the two vehicles. Some cash was stowed in a gym bag. Gardaí later raided a home in Clondalkin, west Dublin, where they found a ‘very significant sum of cash’, according to gardaí.
Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll, head of special crime operations, said that seizing the proceeds from major gangs had become ‘a particular priority for the Garda Síochána’.
In another raid on Saturday, a fourth man was arrested and taken to Wexford Garda Station and €200,000 was seized.
Yesterday gardaí said a total of €1.7million had been seized in the weekend’s operations.
It is believed to be one of the largest cash seizures in the investigation into the Kinahan gang, which buys drugs directly from South America and distributes in Ireland and Britain.
The cash discovered by gardaí was vacuum-packed. It is believed these were intended to be shortly moved out of the country.
Such massive cash seizures will have dealt a blow to the Irish branch of the cartel, weakening their stronghold on parts of the country. Earlier this month drugs, cash, phones and documents were seized by gardaí in raids across Dublin.
In March this year a Dublin man was jailed for eight years after admitting money laundering worth over €600,000. Then in July carpenter was jailed for his part in laundering €350,000 for the gang.
The cartel was dealt a blow in July after the High Court ruled the Byrne organised crime group, which is linked to the cartel, had accumulated its wealth as a result of criminal activity.
Goods with an estimated value of €1.4million were seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau. These included cars and property.
To date 18 people have been fatally shot during the feud between the Kinahan and Hutch gangs. It started in 2015 when Gary Hutch, a nephew of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, was shot dead in Spain.
Two men are due in court in Wexford today following the seizure of the money. The other two men and the woman were released without charge. Files are to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.