Gardaí consider recommending organised crime charges against arrested members of 'The Family' crime group

Three brothers, including the overall gang boss, and two other senior figures were arrested by elite armed gardaí in a swoop on Monday in west Dublin. Picture: Garda Press Office

Gardaí are examining the prospect of recommending organised crime charges — including membership and direction of a crime group — against Ireland’s top gang boss and four of his lieutenants.

The five men are considered to form the bulk of the “leadership structure” of the biggest drug trafficking gang in the country, known as ‘The Family’.

Three brothers, including the overall gang boss, and two other senior figures were arrested by elite armed gardaí in a swoop on Monday in west Dublin.

A fourth brother, also considered a significant player in the hierarchy, was not among the arrests.

‘The Family’, based in the Ballyfermot and Clondalkin areas of west Dublin, has operated for almost three decades and replaced the Kinahan crime cartel a couple of years ago as Ireland’s number one crime network.

The arrests are understood to be related to a series of recent, massive, cocaine seizures as well as linked operations last September in which 100kg of cocaine was seized in Co Wexford and 27 properties were searched.

The searches were part of an international policing operation — spanning nine countries — targeting an encrypted phone network, known as ‘Ghost’, used by what officers said were “very powerful” crime groups across the globe.

Europol, the EU police agency, coordinated that operation, along with US and Australian police, after French authorities infiltrated the Ghost network and two servers. They found that Australia and Ireland were the two countries with the greatest use of the system — with around 400 such devices in Australia and 100 in Ireland.

Last December, 'The Family' was suspected of being behind an attempted assassination of a rival gang member, intercepted by An Garda Síochána's elite emergency response unit.

This resulted in 18 properties in Dublin and two cells in Portlaoise Prison being searched. Digital devices were seized, which gardaí hoped could reveal information about the attempted hit and drug shipments.

The most recent drug seizure linked to 'The Family' was last week's interception of a truck in Co Kilkenny, with a massive 152kgs of cocaine hidden in a sophisticated concealment.

Gardaí are examining the possibility of recommending to the Director of Public Prosecutions that special gang offences — membership of an organised crime group, facilitating or contributing to a gang, and directing a crime group — could be brought against those arrested, including the boss.

It is not clear if gardaí have uncovered messages from encrypted communications to support any such charges.

The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) and the Criminal Assets Bureau has been targeting ‘The Family’ for at least ten years.

The bureau has made a succession of massive drug seizures against the network, particularly in the last year.

Along with the three brothers, gardaí also arrested two people, described as “significant players” in the network. They are being held under organised crime legislation and can be questioned for a maximum of seven days.

A Garda statement said DOCB was supported by the emergency response unit, regional armed support unit, Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the Dublin crime response team. 

‘The Family’ were the country’s number one heroin traffickers for decades, before branching out into the lucrative cocaine trade after the Kinahan cartel came under sustained law enforcement pressure.