Cash, Audi and luxury watches all seized in raid targeting drugs gang
GARDAÍ yesterday seized a large sum of cash, a car and a number of luxury watches as part of an operation targeting a drugs gang.
Members of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) carried out a search of a home in Co Meath yesterday morning.
During the raid, an Audi A7, three watches – including Tag Heuer and Gucci brands – and a miniature phone were seized.
Laptops, mobile phones and documentation were also recovered and they will be forensically analysed.
Gardaí also seized €8,700 in cash, as well as 8,000 Polish zloty (€1,800).
Officers said that the operation was “conducted as part of a proceeds of crime investigation targeting the assets deriving from the sale and supply of controlled drugs”.
The CAB team was backed up during the operation by local detectives from the Meath division, the regional Armed Support Unit (ASU) and the Customs Dog Unit. The investigation is one of around 40 being carried out by the CAB in relation to criminals living in the Co Meath area, a county with one of the highest number of the Bureau’s targets outside of Dublin.
Yesterday’s search was the second significant CAB operation in the Meath area in recent days.
Last Friday, as part of a separate investigation, gardaí searched the home of a businessman who was previously arrested in relation to drugs seizure worth in the region of €1m.
During that search, a Range Rover and designer watches were among items that were seized in what was described as a significant operation.
In total, five locations were searched between Meath and south Dublin in which the 131-registered Range Rover along with two Rolex watches, as well as Breitling and Longines watches, were seized.
Files, documentation and hard drives were also seized during the operation.
The CAB said that the operation was part of its ongoing investigation targeting “the assets of a significant organised crime group involved in the sale, supply and distribution of controlled drugs”.
A Garda spokesman said: “The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) conducted a search operation at five locations in the Dublin Metropolitan Region South, Dublin Metropolitan Region East and Meath Divisions.”
The target of that operation, a businessman in his 40s, was previously quizzed over a significant heroin seizure in Dublin last year. He was detained as part of a joint investigation by Irish and UK police into a drug trafficking ring between the two countries but was released without charge.
The bust was linked to a west Dublin-based crime group who are a priority target for anti-gangland officers as well as the CAB.