CAB swoop after year’s surveillance of Scotsman
The 50-year-old suspected money launderer is reportedly linked to at least 500 properties across Britain and Ireland.
Serious crime agencies in the North, Scotland and England assisted the CAB yesterday in a series of searches.
The Scottish national — who fled here 10 years ago — was holed up in his house in Shankill, south Dublin, yesterday as CAB officers carried out a search on his home.
The man, who is married, was unaware he had been the subject of a year-long surveillance operation conducted by the CAB.
The bureau sought the assistance of various serious crime agencies in Britain around six months ago.
This included Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency and the Financial Investigations Unit of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The CAB believes the man has close associations with international drug traffickers from England. He is not thought to be linked with Irish drug dealers.
He is thought to have run his entire property empire from his Dublin home.
“This is a CAB-led operation examining a property portfolio involving 500 properties across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland,” said a garda source.
“All the properties are linked to this individual, who has been living here for around ten years.”
The CAB raided 10 premises linked to the suspect in Dublin and Wicklow yesterday.
This included a number of warehouses, offices and houses. “He ran his entire property empire from here. He had no idea we were looking at him,” said the garda source.
CAB officers took computers and documents from the places searched yesterday and will examine them over the coming weeks.
Property transactions will be investigated to establish the man’s asset portfolio.
The suspect has not been arrested and is not expected to be so, but that could change depending on the circumstances, according to garda sources.
The CAB will coordinate with the British agencies in the coming days and weeks to progress their investigation.
In the North, the PSNI carried out searches in Belfast, Bangor, Ballymena and Lisburn.
The suspect, who has convictions in Scotland, vanished from the country 10 years ago, taking his money with him.
He settled in Ireland where he bought up hundreds of properties. The CAB know of 500 properties, but suspect there could be more.
The suspected money laundering is thought to involve high-level insurance and mortgage fraud.
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