Two arrests as drugs worth €5.4m seized in latest blow to 'The Family'

Gardaí said 20kg of diamorphine (heroin) and 37kg of cocaine with an estimated value of approximately €5,390,000 was seized

The two men, who are aged in their 60s, are currently detained at a Garda station in Meath under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act 1996.

The country’s top drugs gang, along with a major cross-border smuggler, have been hit following a massive seizure of 20kgs of heroin and 37kgs of cocaine.

In a joint operation, customs officers and gardaí confiscated the consignments in Castletown, Co Meath, which they have given a final street valuation of €5.4m.

Two men, aged in their 60s, were arrested.

One of them is understood to be a veteran cross-border criminal, based in Monaghan, suspected of being involved in organised crime for many years, both in the UK and Ireland.

The second man, from Cavan, is not previously known to gardaí.

The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB), together with the Revenue Customs Service, carried out the operation on foot on intelligence gathered.

It is the latest blow to the drug network known as 'The Family', which gardaí have described as the number one drug trafficking gang in the country.

The network, which boasts extensive contacts in Europe, the Middle East and South America, is estimated to earn around €10m in profits annually.

The group, which involves four brothers from one family, has been operating for decades and supplies not just much of Dublin with heroin and cocaine, but also distributes a large slice of drugs to the rest of the country, including the south and mid-west.

DOCB is working on a combined file in relation to The Family for submission to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Despite previous seizure and arrest operations, the network is still continuing to operate, as Wednesday's seizure reflects.

In a statement, Garda HQ said: “Gardaí arrested two men following the seizure by Revenue officers of 20kg of diamorphine (heroin) and 37kg of cocaine with an estimated value of approximately €5,390,000 in Co Meath yesterday, Tuesday 27 May 2025.

“This seizure was made as a result of an intelligence-led joint operation conducted by Revenue’s Customs Service, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and Eastern Region colleagues, the Meath/Westmeath Divisional Drugs and Crime Units.

It added: “The two men, aged in their 60s, are currently detained at a Garda Station in Meath under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act 1996.” 

The gang, which has its base in Ballyfermot and Clondalkin in west Dublin, operated largely independently even when the Kinahan crime cartel was the dominant player in Ireland.

While associated with the cartel, The Family, was the primary supplier of heroin into the country, built on extensive international contacts, including with large-scale suppliers in Turkey.

As the Kinahan cartel buckled under domestic and international law enforcement pressure — and the leaders fled to the United Arab Emirates — The Family muscled into the much-bigger cocaine business and became the main player in the market for Ireland.

Last March, the bulk of the “leadership structure”, as sources described it, were arrested by gardaí as part of a coordinated operation with Spanish police targeting the outfit in Spain.

The leader of the network, and two of his brothers, were arrested, along with two other key lieutenants in the outfit. They were released without charge, pending the preparation of what is understood to be a substantial file for the DPP.

Six other people were arrested in Spain, described as significant suppliers, five of them local nationals, and the sixth a gang representative covering the British market.

Last September, DOCB and Europol revealed that the encrypted communication system, called 'Ghost', used by global gangs, including 'The Family', had been accessed by French technical experts and analysed by the EU police agency.