City’s ‘biggest drug dealer’ in custody

A MAN believed to be Limerick’s biggest drugs operator was in custody last night after gardaí stormed a huge heroin packaging operation near Moyross.

Armed gardaí under Detective Inspector Jim Ryan arrested two men in the derelict Delmege estate near Moyross at about 3pm. The men were preparing heroin worth an estimated €170,000 for packaging.

Two hours later the main drugs suspect was arrested at his house in Moyross. A senior garda source said last night: “This is a huge success given the calibre of the people we now have in custody.”

The drugs boss, who is being held at Henry Street Garda Station, last week took over a Limerick hotel where he hosted a massive party for his 40th birthday.

He is a known associate of the notorious McCarthy- Dundon gang which controls the drugs scene on the other side of the city in Ballinacurra Western and Southill.

The first two arrests were made when gardaí, after a long surveillance operation, found two men in their 20s preparing the heroin in the derelict estate a short distance from Moyross.

The gang leader, who was arrested two hours later, has been making huge inroads into the drugs scene on the north side of the city since the arrest of a key figure of the rival Keane-Collopy gang who is awaiting trial.

He is a close friend of Kieran and Ed Ryan, who were recently jailed after they were found carrying a loaded gun into the city after a high-speed chase.

The Ryan brothers reached national notoriety in 2003 when they claimed they had been kidnapped prior to the murder of crime boss Kieran Keane.