https://www.thesun.ie/news/1813113/kinahan-cartel-plot-to-flood-ireland-with-e10m-worth-of-heroin-and-cocaine-backfires-as-seizure-sparks-international-crackdown/17 Nov 2017
COPS have smashed a major Kinahan cartel plot to swamp Ireland with €10million worth of heroin, cocaine and cannabis.
A total of 13 men were in custody last night as part of a massive international probe featuring busts in Meath, Dublin and Amsterdam.
Two were arrested after being caught loading a €7m consignment of drugs into vans in Ashbourne, Co Meath, on Wednesday evening.
In a simultaneous blitz, Dutch cops arrested eight men, three of them Irish, as they seized 175 kilos of cocaine, cannabis, vacuum-packed cash, computers, encrypted phones and €3million worth of the bitcoin cryptocurrency.
And in follow-up searches in Dublin yesterday, another three men were held when gardai nabbed heroin worth €500,000, three imitation firearms and €6,000 cash in a series of raids.
Detectives believe the Ashbourne haul was smuggled into Ireland by a Dutch-based drugs-trafficking gang that works closely with the Kinahan cartel.
The gear is thought to have been destined for crime mobs operating in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and along the border counties.
The lads arrested in Ashbourne by the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau — one a taxi driver — aren’t senior members of the Kinahan cartel but are regarded as “trusted lieutenants”.
The pair, both from north Dublin, were caught after they were placed under surveillance.
It’s understood a container that had arrived into Dublin Port was monitored by officers who swooped as it was being unloaded.
The three Irishmen nabbed in Amsterdam had been staying in a heavily-fortified apartment with bullet-proof doors.
When a police Swat team gained access, they discovered €100,000 cash in a reinforced safe.
A west Dublin taxi driver with previous drugs convictions and two Limerick hoods, one of them a previous Criminal Assets Bureau target, were taken into custody.
The massive operation continued as Dutch police, along with a Garda liaison officer, forced a convoy of cars to stop on a busy Amsterdam street.
Our exclusive photograph shows the dramatic moment heavily armed cops overpower the occupants of one motor.
One suspect is shown handcuffed with his hands behind his back in front of a black Merc, while police surround another vehicle.
The eight men held in Holland are expected to be brought before an examining magistrate today.
Four of the others in custody there are Dutch and one is Belgian.
All were being questioned on suspicion of money-laundering.
Back at home, three others were arrested yesterday around Dublin’s south city during nine follow-up searches under Operation Thistle.
A substance believed to be heroin, with an estimated street value of around €500,000, was found hidden in a small car in an underground carpark.
Also recovered were an imitation Kalashnikov assault rifle, a realistic-looking handgun and a bogus rifle, €26,000 worth of heroin and €6,000 in cash.
Properties in Inchicore, Kilmainham and Ballyfermot were raided.
The trio arrested in Dublin yesterday are considered low- to mid-ranking cartel figures. The blitz over the last 48 hours is just the latest in a series of setbacks to the Kinahan organisation.
Gardai have made arrests, impounded high-powered weapons and charged seven other people with conspiracy to murder as part of their ongoing investigations.
One investigator told us: “This shows the extent of the Kinahan cartel’s international connections — they are part of a major European drugs distribution network.”
In April 2016, Dutch Moroccan mafia boss Naoufal Fassih — aka Mr Couscous — was busted in a garda raid on a Kinahan-rented Dublin city apartment.
Detectives had no idea who he was when they went there, having found a utility bill for the pad on a known associate of the Irish cartel.
The discovery came as a major boost to Dutch police, who wanted the lardy thug over an attempt to murder a gangland rival outside Amsterdam.
He’s currently awaiting trial in Holland’s highest security prison.
Meanwhile, garda surveillance continues on key cartel members.
Perma-tanned Liam Roe, who’s the subject of a CAB court action, was spotted looking ridiculously orange in Dublin’s south inner city.
