€40m drug smuggling network is smashed by gardai

GARDAI have smashed a major drugs network responsible for importing more than €40m worth of cannabis into Ireland and the UK in the space of only 18 months.

The alleged mastermind and another suspect were last night in custody after a series of raids by gardai in Meath and Dublin.

It was the culmination of months of police work, which involved gardai linking with their counterparts in the Netherlands, the UK and Germany.

The drugs were being posted from the Netherlands concealed in computer parts.

It is believed up to 2,000kg of cannabis was smuggled in this way.

Yesterday's raids came about following a lengthy investigation, codenamed Majesty, and were carried out by officers from the Garda National Drugs Unit at Dublin Castle.

The suspected kingpin, a 35-year-old man, was detained in north inner city Dublin. He has an address in Co Meath, but is from the capital.

An Albanian man, who is alleged to have acted as a courier for the gang boss, was detained in Co Meath.

Seven premises were also searched in Meath and Dublin, and gardai believe they have obtained fresh evidence that could link Irish criminals to drugs seizures made by police in the Netherlands.

It is believed that the Dutch side of the network is controlled by a major crime family, and members of this group are among the top targets for police in the Netherlands.

Operation Majesty was launched last year after the seizure in Ireland of 52kg of cannabis with a street value of more than €1m.

In follow-up searches, gardai seized a US-manufactured sub-machine gun, an Italian-made 9mm pistol, a Belgian 9mm pistol and silencer, a quantity of grenades and 321 rounds of assorted ammunition.

Further inquiries by the garda unit, led by Det Chief Supt John McMahon, established that an Irish crime gang was closely linked to an international network trafficking cannabis herb across Europe.

Gardai have since established that a total of around 2,000kg of herb with a street value of more than €40m has been smuggled into Ireland and the UK through the post since early last year.

Gardai worked closely with customs officers and several private couriers and uncovered a number of "virtual" companies which had been set up by the crime gang to collect the parcels of drugs.

http://www.independent.ie 14/09/2013