Gardaí examining 20 bank accounts

GARDAÍ are examining more than 20 bank accounts suspected of being part of a “sophisticated” worldwide money laundering operation directed by crime boss Christy Kinahan.

Detectives have already uncovered a betting scam here through which an estimated €2.5 million in cash was laundered by the Kinahan syndicate.

The Garda investigation hopes to bring charges against a number of significant players in Kinahan’s operation under the new organised crime legislation.

Kinahan, along with his right-hand man John Cunningham, ran one of the biggest drug, gun and money-laundering syndicates in Europe from their bases in Spain and the Netherlands. Gardaí consider them to be the number one drug traffickers into Ireland.

They were among 34 people, 12 of them Irish, arrested in a synchronised police operation in Spain, Britain and Ireland, under Operation Shovel. British police yesterday released the 11 people arrested there.

As of yesterday, over 90 searches have been conducted in the three jurisdictions. Further inquiries are being conducted in Belgium, Cyprus and as far afield as South America, Africa and the Far East.

Gardaí carried out nine searches yesterday morning, in addition to the 45 searches conducted throughout Tuesday. One man was arrested on Tuesday. From Dublin’s north inner city, this man is linked to a well-known local gang.

He was arrested as part of a Garda investigation into a tiger kidnapping in Dublin last year in which €7.2m was stolen from a Bank of Ireland depot on College Green. This man was charged yesterday on separate charges for the possession and supply of cocaine in 2008 and was remanded in custody.

The operation here is being led by the Garda National Drug Unit, with assistance from the Criminal Assets Bureau and the money laundering unit of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation.

The 54 searches in Ireland included raids on residential and commercial premises and professional offices, including solicitors and accountants. Almost all were in Dublin.

Gardaí said the gang used hairdressers and dry cleaners in Ireland to launder cash. The gang invested in properties and pubs in Spain and invested in off-shore accounts and properties as far away as Hong Kong, South Africa, Dubai and Brazil.

Garda sources said a huge quantity of documentation, computers and bank records had been taken away.

They are investigating one unemployed individual who had €200,000 in an account under his name.

They are also examining a betting scam through which €2.5m had been laundered, on which tax was paid and only €200,000 was lost.

Gardaí said they had also uncovered at least ten front companies, set up under the pretext of importing legitimate goods from abroad.

Sources said they were examining a number of key figures here in Kinahan’s gang, with a view to charging them under recently passed anti-gangland legislation.

“We are looking at the evidence obtained in searches and intelligence gleaned over the last number of years with a view could we sustain charges of organised crime,” confirmed one source.