‘Kinahan gang’s €350k was bound for Spain’
Latest cash run linked to drug dealer Christy was seized in the capital by gardai
MORE than €350,000 seized by gardai in Dublin yesterday is believed to be the profits of drug dealer Christy Kinahan’s Irish operation.
The cash was seized from three men in their 40s who were stopped in their cars in the Dublin west suburb of Walkinstown yesterday.
Security sources believe the money was due to be smuggled out to Spain where the “key players” in Kinahan’s operation are based.
It is the latest financial hit on the Kinahan operation by gardai in recent months
Earlier this year, the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau seized €300,000 when they raided a property in south that was believed to have been used as a Kinahan counting den.
That €300,000 is also believed to have been destined for Spain.
The newest raid is the latest success in an intensive intelligence-gathering operation on Kinahan and his drugs gang in the fall-out of the murderous gangland feud with the Hutch gang that has played out largely on the streets of the north inner city since last year.
Three men in their 40s were arrested after a number of searches of people and vehicles in the Dublin 12 suburb. The men are being detained at Crumlin and Ronanstown Garda Stations.
Gardai said in a statement that the arrests come following “investigations and intelligence-led targeting of serious criminal activity” by the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, and the Special Crime Task Force.
A number of follow-up searches were conducted in the Crumlin and south Dublin areas, where additional smaller amounts of cash and other cash-counting paraphernalia were seized.
The Kinahan gang, believed to be headed by Christy Kinahan’s son Daniel, has also been hit by the Criminal Assets Bureau, which last year seized a number of luxury, high-end cars from a Dublin dealership.
A security source said the Kinahan drug-dealing opera- tions have been significantly disrupted in this country as a result of ongoing gang warDublin fare. Kinahan is reportedly based in Dublin while there have also been sightings in Switzerland.
His gang members are still running the drugs empire from his former base on the Costa del Sol.
Daniel Kinahan is believed to have taken over the drugs operation from his father, while the gangland feud continues.
More than 12 people have been shot dead in the gang warfare, including two innocent people.
The most recent victim of the gang violence was Michael Keogh, who was killed last month. He was shot dead while sitting in his car in an underground car park in Dublin’s north inner city.