The Criminal Assets Bureau has frozen €250,000 in accounts held by one of Dublin's biggest cocaine gangs.
The operation targeted deposits held in a number of financial institutions in the inner city, including a credit union in Sheriff Street, and followed months of investigations.
It also marks the latest in a series of setbacks for the gang, led by a man in his 40s. He is currently remanded on bail after appearing in court along with his brother on tax charges.
In January, two other members of his family were among a group arrested after cocaine worth €100,000 was found in two houses in Dublin. They too are on remand.
Separately, a Garda file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions detailing sexual allegations made against the gang leader, who is originally from the Sheriff Street area but now lives in a large house in north Co Dublin.
The accounts frozen by CAB are in the names of relatives and associates, but all are believed to derive from the profits of the drugs operation.
The gang leader has been dealing drugs - mainly heroin - for at least a decade, but his recent move into cocaine reflects the increased availability of the drug in Dublin.
The January arrests followed the delivery of a quantity of cocaine to a house in the north inner city; the drug was being prepared for sale when gardaí raided.
Det Insp Jim Cannon of the North Central Drugs Unit said at the time that the gang was operating at a "very significant level," while Dublin Central TD Mr Tony Gregory welcomed the arrests. Mr Gregory said the local community had informed gardaí about the group's activities "a long time ago".
Yesterday he said the CAB's operation to freeze the group's assets was an example of the work the bureau was originally set up to do, but now did too infrequently.
"This is very much an exceptional case," he said, adding that the CAB had "gone all over the place" in the past few years at the expense of the initial target - organised drug crime.
He added: "They need to refocus on their original priority, even if it is more difficult and dangerous work than some of what they've been doing recently."
