CAB targets Sligo crime gang suspects in huge swoop

THE Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) yesterday led a huge operation against a suspected organised crime gang in the north-west.

The CAB seized a large quantity of documents and computers in the day-long operation. They will be used to identify the assets and accounts of gang members.

Operation Golf involved a range of Garda units as well as the CAB and local gardaí. These include the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI), the elite armed Garda wing, the Emergency Response Unit, the Garda Dog Unit and the Garda Water Unit. Customs officers were also involved.

A Garda spokesman said the operation was aimed at organised crime in the area: “Operation Golf is a target driven operation against those engaged in organised and serious crime in the north-west region, centred around Sligo town,” he said.

Up to 18 premises were raided, including 14 homes and four professional offices. Most of the raids took place in Sligo town, with at least one in Leitrim.

Later in the day gardaí travelled to an uninhabited island in Lough Gill, called Church Island, so-called as it is the historic site of a monastery founded by St Loman in the 6th century.

A Garda boat went to the scenic island with a sniffer dog.

Investigation sources said the family-based gang was suspected of being involved in drug trafficking and was a significant player in the region.

The CAB-led initiative began shortly before 7am and continued right through the day.

Up to 90 officers were involved in the operation, which took the people targeted by complete surprise.

Sources said the CAB would now focus on examining the assets of those targeted, but if evidence of other criminal activity emerged that would also be pursued. The NBCI will carry out any such criminal investigation.

The operation has been planned for a number of months and followed growing concern at the emergence of serious, and armed, crime gangs in Sligo town.

There have been three gangland-style murders in Sligo in the past three years.

Last January, 39-year-old David Lynch became the third victim when he was shot dead after stepping out from a van in Collery Drive on the edge of the Cranmore estate in the town. Two others, including a 12-year-old boy, were injured in the shooting.

In December 2005 23-year-old Sam Smith was shot dead when he answered the door at his sister’s home in Cranmore.

The previous April 26-year-old Hughie McGingley, was shot dead in broad daylight in front of his partner and baby while they sat in a parked van on Gratton Street in the town.

In a fourth murder, Tom Ward, also 23, was attacked with a hatchet outside his parents’ home in Cranmore in August 2007.