CAB raid two dental practices suspected of money laundering

A PROMINENT figure in domestic Irish soccer was the main target when the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) raided two dental practices suspected of being a front for money-laundering.

CAB officers, backed up by armed gardaí, also searched a west Dublin soccer club with which the target is closely associated.

But they did not seize anything of evidential value in the raid on the club.

“The search happened at the football club because the target spends time there, and there was a belief that evidence that would help the CAB investigation might show up there,” a source explained.

“Like most football clubs across the country, the vast, vast majority of people involved with this one in west Dublin are decent, law-abiding people,” the source added.

Senior sources say that CAB’s latest target – who is aged in his 30s – is a close associate of Kinahan cartel associate Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan as well as two jailed men who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The target’s home in Tallaght was searched as were two properties connected to people “who run the businesses for him”, according to a senior source.

Three businesses suspected of being used for money laundering were targeted. These were a motor dealership in the capital as well as the two dental practices.

No patients were being treated when CAB officers arrived to carry out the searches at the premises, which are in the south inner city and the north inner city.

“The belief of investigating gardaí is that these dental premises are simply being used as a front to launder drugs money,” a senior source said.

Documents and devices were seized in the raids on all three businesses. The targeted gang are closely aligned to the Kinahan cartel and the raids are linked to a heroin seizure in the summer.

No property directly connected to convicted drugdealer Whelan (37) was targeted in yesterday’s operation in which CAB was backed up by the Garda emergency response unit and the Customs dog unit.

“Fourteen premises were searched as a part of this operation including residential premises, a sports club, business premises, a motor dealership, dental practices and other professional premises,” a garda spokesman said.

A total of €13,200 in cash was seized, €35,921 frozen in a bank account, while BMW and Ford vehicles were also seized along with records in relation to a number of significant property transactions, gardaí said.