Gardaí turn up heat on Kinahan crime cartel following further raids in Dublin

The Kinahan crime cartel was dealt a further blow yesterday after gardaí targeted “middle and lower ranking” members of the network in Dublin.

The operation against a south inner city drug gang follows Wednesday’s operation hitting those at the upper end of the Kinahan cartel in nearby Crumlin.

However, gardaí also turned the heat up on the Hutch gang, whose feud with the Kinahans has so far resulted in three murders, with searches in Co Donegal in relation to the seizure of three AK47s, similar to the ones used in the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel last month.

In yesterday’s operation on the Kinahan syndicate, first revealed in the Irish Examiner, gardaí searched 10 homes.

Detective Superintendent Peter O’Boyle, who led the searches, said that the purpose was to target the “activities of an organised criminal gang” operating in the area.

He said: “As a result of those searches we seized in excess of €50,000 in cash, in excess of €20,000 worth of jewellery, an assortment of financial documentation and a number of GPS tracking devices.”

He said a total of 80 gardaí were involved, which included the elite Emergency Response Unit, the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the Special Detective Unit and the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Among those targeted were three people closely associated with, and related to, senior members of the Kinahan cartel, including the murdered David Byrne.

In the home of one of the main targets, they uncovered €45,000 in cash and three GPS trackers.

Gardaí suspect the trackers would be used to monitor vehicles of either criminal rivals or possibly of drug transportations.

In a number of homes, gardaí took away financial documentation, including papers found in the home of a girlfriend of one of the main targets.

Another man targeted is related to a well-known drug dealer from nearby Drimnagh.

The 10 properties hit are spread out across the south inner city, from Pearse Street on the east side over to Inchicore on the west.

The Criminal Assets Bureau will examine the financial documentation seized.

The bureau is already engaged in what will be a lengthy examination of a huge amount of documentation and computers seized in Wednesday’s operation which targeted 11 homes and seven businesses, including a car dealership, and a pub along with accountancy and solicitors’ firms.

Some 35 vehicles, including 29 luxury cars and six motorbikes, were seized along with around €70,000 in cash and 10 Rolex and Breitling watches, worth in the region of €100,000.

The assets were roughly estimated to be in the €1m mark, but CAB is finalising their valuation.