Gardaí plan to 'take down' top drug gang known as The Family

The Family has dominated the heroin trade into Ireland for decades and in more recent years has also taken over a huge slice of the lucrative cocaine trade. Stock picture

Gardaí hope to unlock gangland secrets from digital devices seized as part a long-running operation aimed at “taking down” the country’s biggest drug trafficking organisation.

The network — known as The Family — is suspected of being behind an attempted assassination of a rival gang member that was intercepted by the force’s Emergency Response Unit on Tuesday night.