Air trafficking control...

A MAJOR haul of cocaine flown in on a private plane was organised by the Kinahan cartel and was to be passed on to local gangs, The Star can reveal.

The Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) laid yet another major blow to Daniel Kinahan’s business with the €8.4 million seizure on Thursday, the third major seizure against the gang in just over a month.

Two men, aged 40 and 54, remained in Ashbourne Garda Station in Co Meath last night, including the pilot of the plane, on suspicion of drug trafficking.

The operation kicked off after a light aircraft plane landed in a commercial airfield in Abbeyshrule, Longford from Dieppe-Saint-Aubin Airport in France just before 5.25pm on Thursday evening.

Gardai believe the cocaine was taken from the plane and put into a car, which then travelled in convoy with another vehicle.

But officers from the DOCB, supported by armed cops from the Emergency Response Unit, stopped the cars in the Lough Owel area of Co Westmeath.

In one of them, six holdall bags and one suitcase were found stuffed with 120kg of cocaine.

Pilot

The driver of each car, including the suspected pilot who flew the plane into Longford from France, were arrested.

Searches followed on Thursday evening and yesterday morning, in which the aircraft was seized.

Houses were also raided in Naas, Co Kildare and Waterford City and detectives took communication devices which could prove crucial in the probe.

Investigators believe that the 120kg of cocaine was organised by the cartel and was to be sold to a number of groups who had put forward cash.

Sources said the Kinahan gang are using a network of gangs throughout the country for logistics and distribution, stressing that it is nationwide.

A source said: “The Kinahan cartel are behind this and are one of two to three gangs that could organise such an amount of drugs to be smuggled in here.

“What the Kinahans are doing is using a network of gangs around the country.

“So they are organising the drugs coming in on a wholesale basis and this network of gangs who have put money in the pot which goes to the Kinahan gang in a dvance of the drugs arriving.

“The gangs take it over when it arrives here for it to be transported around local groups.

“It isn’t for just to Dublin city, these drugs were destined for right across the country including the midlands in particular.

“But these seizures have a major impact on the ground with these

‘When seizures like this happen, the gangs lose their money .... there’s no refunds or insurance in that business’

“They are putting forward significant amounts of cash up front. But when seizures like this happen, that money is lost.