Drug boss, 23, loses €10m of cocaine in haul

A 23-year-old drugs boss was yesterday dealt a major blow following the biggest seizure of cocaine in recent years.

Gardaí recovered 50-60 kilos of the drug in a surveillance operation in Dublin yesterday afternoon.

The cocaine was last night valued by gardaí at around €10 million, given the very high purity of the consignment.

Sources said the haul belonged to a convicted drug trafficker from Crumlin, in the south west of the city.

The individual was sentenced to six years in jail in July 2003 after being caught with a haul of heroin.

“He is still conducting operations from inside. His gang would be big and would have contacts across the city,” said one source.

The seizure followed an operation headed by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) and the Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU).

NBCI and GNDU, together with Sundrive Garda Station in Crumlin, had a warehouse in Robinhood Industrial Estate in Clondalkin under surveillance for some months.

Shortly after 2pm yesterday, a storeman for the gang was seen leaving the estate in a car. Gardaí pulled the car over on the Naas Road and found 20 kilos of high purity cocaine. They recovered between 30 and 40 kilos from the warehouse.

The haul is thought to be the single biggest seizure of cocaine since 1998, when 320 kilos were found by customs in Kinsale harbour.

The storeman, aged in his 30s, was detained in Clondalkin Garda Station.

Senior gardaí said the seizure would have a major impact on the supply of cocaine over Christmas.

The crime boss was involved in a violent feud with a rival gang in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area between 2000 and 2002.

The individual is himself suspected by detectives of murdering drug dealer Declan Gavin in Crumlin in March 2000.

The criminal’s brother was shot dead in retaliation in July 2002. The crime boss himself received gunshot injuries prior to that.