Irish Daily Star

SETBACKS FOR CARTEL

- ■■John HAND

gangs here.

“The Kinahans deal in the multimilli­ons. The smaller guys have a lot of money, but nothing in comparison.

“There’s no refunds or insurance in that business and it puts a lot of pressure on those gangs.”

The seizures were made under “Operation Tara”, which is a nationally coordinate­d plan to target mid and street level drug pushers.

Despite mob boss Daniel, his father Christy “Dapper Don” Kinahan and brother Christy Jnr being placed under US Government sanctions, their business of drug traffickin­g on a global scale has continued.

But gardai are going toe-to-toe with them, having seized €6.9m worth of their cannabis in the southeast of the country last month in a suspected drugs distributi­on centre.

At the end of June, €2m worth of Kinahan drugs was seized.

Sanctions

Another source said: “Gardai are aware that despite the sanctions in place, many have stayed loyal to the Kinahan group and continue to operate on their behalf.

“Recent seizures of cannabis, significan­t ones in recent months, all go back to the Kinahans too.”

In the first six months of this year, over €16.4m worth of drugs have been seized by divisional drug units around the country.

The DOCB have nabbed in excess of €35m, which totals over €51m in drug seizures by the gardai in 2022.

Detective Chief Superinten­dent Seamus Boland, the Head of the DOCB, said the gardai’s operations have caused huge disruption­s for these gangs and hailed the work by internatio­nal police forces who are working with them too.

The senior garda said Thursday’s seizure was clearly linked to a transnatio­nal gang.

Speaking yesterday, he said: “It should be very obvious that any

 ?? ?? SECRET OPERATION: The aircraft seized in the drug bust carried out by gardai on Thursday
HAUL: 120kg of cocaine was seized and two arrests were made as part of the operation
SECRET OPERATION: The aircraft seized in the drug bust carried out by gardai on Thursday HAUL: 120kg of cocaine was seized and two arrests were made as part of the operation
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