Gardaí believe drugs and cash with a combined value of almost €3 million seized in recent days were owned by two of Dublin’s biggest crime gangs.
In one of the seizures dollars, sterling and Euro valued at around €250,000 was found during separate raids at houses in Raheny and Coolock on the north side of the city.
A quantity of anabolic steroids was found during that operation and gardai investigating the seizure believe at least some of the money came from the illicit distribution of those drugs and other performance enhancing substances.
In a separate and unrelated seizure , also in the Coolock suburb, cannabis valued at an estimated €2.4million was recovered after a criminal transporting some of the consignment crashed his car when being pursued as undercover gardai moved in.
That operation took place on Friday afternoon when gardai who had placed a number of properties and suspected gang members under surveillance decided to carry out a surprise raid as a large consignment of drugs was being broken up for sale.
Of the estimated €2.4 million haul of cannabis resin and herb that was being divided, a consignment valued at around €400,000 was placed into a car to be driven away from a property in Coolock.
Gardaí pursued the vehicle as it was being driven by one of the targets of the operation. The man crashed the car but got out and escaped on foot before gardai could apprehend him.
However, a search of the vehicle revealed it was packed with the drugs.
The remainder of the haul, valued at around €2 million, was then found during a search of the property that had been under surveillance by members of Coolock’s drug unit.
A man in his 40s was arrested there and detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act.
The arrested man was not the target of the operation and gardai believe he was working for a Dublin man who has become one of the biggest drug dealers in the State over the past decade.
He is suspected of having paid for and organised the murder of for Real IRA leader in Dublin Alan Ryan, who was shot dead in Donaghmede, north Dublin, 18 months. He was leading efforts by the paramilitaries to extort cash from major crime syndicates.
In the other operation against organised crime in the city, the large volume of cash and steroid were seized at addresses in both Coolock and Raheny on Thursday and Friday. There were no arrests.
That find is being linked to the remnants of the Finglas-based drugs gang once led by Martin ‘Marlo’ Hyland before he was shot dead in December 2006. It was then taken over by Eamon Dunne, who was shot dead in April 2010.
