200GARDAI SMASH DRUGS GANG
14 arrested in searches targeting Keane-collopy group
A NOTORIOUS crime gang was busted by 200 gardai who seized drugs, jewellery and hundreds of thousands of euro.
Thirteen men and a woman, ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s, were arrested during a series of 67 co-ordinated raids in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary yesterday.
Operation Coronation targeted the “accumulated wealth” of the Keanecollopy syndicate.
A source said: “This is a very significant search operation.”
Operation Coronation is a very significant search operation
SOURCE YESTERDAY
GARDAI targeting the assets of a major drugs gang yesterday arrested 14 people and seized around €200,000 in cash.
In a series of dawn raids from 6am, Limerick detectives mounted Operation Coronation, involving 200 officers who were assisted by members of the Defence Forces.
Officers seized:
■ Approximately €220,000 in euros, sterling, dirham [UAE currency] and old Irish pounds
■ Deeds to a property in Dubai
■ One car valued at approximately €50,000
■ €100,000 worth of jewellery and luxury watches
■ High value clothing items
■ €23,500 of suspected cannabis herb, cocaine and heroin, as well as cocaine presses, and
■ Two bank accounts have also been frozen containing sums in excess of €119,000.
Gardai conducted 67 searches of homes, premises and locations across counties Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.
They were supported by the Criminal Assets Bureau, Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Emergency Response Unit, the Armed Response Unit and Regional Dog Unit.
The Keane-collopy syndicate, which has tentacles across the country and beyond, has been involved in the sale and supply of illicit drugs across Munster for the past few decades.
It was one of a number of criminal outfits involved in a murderous feud in Limerick between the late 1990s and mid 2000s in which around 20 men were killed.
A source said: “This is a very significant search operation.
“The operation is targeting a local organised crime group, effectively targeting their proceeds of crime, targeting their assets.” A Garda spokesman added: “[Operation Coronation was established] to target organised criminality in Limerick city and its environs.
“Targeting organised extended criminality, drug trafficking and the financial returns achieved from this type of activity through money laundering.”
The operation, co-ordinated by
Limerick gardai, was supported by the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Security and Intelligence Section at Garda HQ to address the accumulation of wealth by those engaged in serious and ongoing criminality.
A total of 13 men and one woman were being detained as part of the investigation.
Gardai said three people were arrested for suspected money laundering offences and detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.
One person was detained in respect of suspicion of involvement in the sale or supply of €2,000 worth of suspected crack cocaine and heroin.
One person was arrested and detained under the provisions of Section 2 of the Criminal Justice 2 (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996, in respect of the seizure of €20,000 worth of suspected cannabis herb.
Six people have been charged with offences relating to the sale or supply of drugs, and three of the 14 people arrested were detained on penal/bench warrants.