Huge seizure of cars and cash in CAB raid

MORE than 100 cars, cash, and other assets were seized yesterday in one of the biggest ever operations in the 23-year history of the Garda Criminal Assets Bureau.

Gardaí armed with machine guns and wearing masks swooped on a number of properties in Limerick, Tipperary and Dublin, as part of the probe which focused on alleged money laundering by a Limerick drug gang.

Yesterday’s CAB-led investigation is also thought to be linked to an internal garda probe into alleged corruption of members of the force who are not in CAB.

In total, gardaí seized 115 cars, €43,000 in cash, £1,000 (€1,172) in cash, and a Rolex watch.

Officers also reportedly froze a bank account containing €30,000.

An eye witness to one of the garda raids described armed and masked gardaí carrying out searches of dozens of cars in a Limerick car sales premises before the vehicles were seized, and driven out of the car lot. The source said a ‘minibus’ was used to ferry ‘drivers’ in and out of the premises to collect and deliver the vehicles to trucks which transported them to a secret location.

Armed gardaí had parked across the front entrance of the premises and the dog unit was there. They were checking under the bonnets and searching the cars.

‘There were at least 40 cars, BMWs, Mercedes, vans, saloon cars, the works, driven out of the place in a long convoy.

‘Some of the gardaí, not only just the ERU, were wearing balaclavas,’ they added.

The raids were led by the Criminal Assets Bureau with the assistance of the Garda Emergency Response Unit, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the Garda Stolen Motor Vehicle Investigation Unit, the Garda Technical Bureau and the Garda Dog Unit.

There were no arrests.