So much cash is now being seized on Garda raids targeting drug gangs that the amount of money being returned to the exchequer by the force’s leading anti-drug unit is, at times, on a par with the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab).
Gardaí also believe the vast sums of cash now being confiscated, which are often found in vacuum-packed blocks of banknotes, reflect the changing landscape in the Irish underworld.
The Kinahan cartel’s Irish network has been wiped out by Garda investigations over the near decade since the Kinahan-Hutch feud began. Some of the domestic gangs who have profited from their downfall are not yet as adept as the cartel in constantly moving and laundering the proceeds of drug dealing, sources said.
The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) has just returned €3 million – seized in cash – to the exchequer as various criminal proceedings against criminals have concluded. That figure is on a par with the amount returned to the exchequer by Cab in some years, though the bureau has also returned much bigger amounts in other years.
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While Cab was established in the 1990s for the specific purpose of seizing criminal assets, the GNDOCB combats all aspects of the drugs trade and organised crime generally.
Cab must prepare a case against its targets and present the evidence to the High Court to convince a judge the assets it wants to seize represent the proceeds of crime. The GNDOCB, however, regularly finds large sums of money during raids and seizes it, before it is forfeited once criminal charges against the suspects are concluded.
Since the drugs and organised crime bureau was established in 2015 it has seized €20 million in cash which it has returned to the exchequer. That money has been discovered in both a relatively small number of multi-million-euro seizures, as well as very frequent seizures of smaller amounts.
“The bulk of the €20 million in cash that we have lodged to the exchequer account following the conclusion of criminal proceedings is the proceeds of drug trafficking,” said the head of GNDOCB, Det Chief Supt Seamus Boland. “It represents a portion of the cash handed over by people engaged in casual drug use across the country.
“All of this cash is invested in serious and organised crime and leads to increased drug supply, violence and drug-related intimidation. Demand fuels supply.
“An Garda Síochána, through the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, will continue to target and disrupt and dismantle those national priority high-risk criminal networks impacting on community safety.”
In a statement, Garda Headquarters said the seized cash had originated from drug purchases by “those whose lives are now destroyed by lifelong drugs addictions” and others using drugs “in a recreational environment”. It added people who buy drugs “should know that their action is directly linked to the human misery and carnage” caused by crime and funding the lifestyles of major drug dealers.
The surge in cash seizures has helped drive an unprecedented increase in money-laundering arrests in the Republic.
Figures obtained by The Irish Times last month reveal there were the same number of arrests for money laundering in the first nine months of 2024 as all of last year. The level of arrests is set to reach between 650 and 700 by year end, a 10-fold increase since 2018.
Garda sources said money-laundering arrests were increasing because An Garda Síochána is now more focused on identifying and investigating it.
While previously drugs and guns were the main objective when targeting groups involved in the drug trade, many of those investigations now involved a strong focus on money laundering, Garda sources said.
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