Cab allowed to seize drug dealers' houses

THE CRIMINAL Assets Bureau (Cab) has been granted High Court orders allowing the seizure of two houses owned by members of a …

THE CRIMINAL Assets Bureau (Cab) has been granted High Court orders allowing the seizure of two houses owned by members of a Dublin drug-dealing gang.

The two houses, in Co Laois, will now be sold by the bureau.

The orders were granted by Mr Justice Kevin Feeney in relation to the houses own by Declan O’Brien (31) and Patrick Boland (29).

Both men are Dubliners originally from the Lindisfarne estate, Clondalkin, in the west of the city. The men are members of a drug-dealing gang based in Clondalkin and both have convictions for possessing drugs for sale or supply.

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The men have been involved in the drugs trade for a number of years and both moved out of Dublin to addresses in Co Laois in late 2004.

O’Brien bought a house at Railway Mews in Portarlington.

Boland moved into a house he purchased at Silvergreen in Mountmellick.

Both men took out mortgages to buy the houses.

The pair paid deposits in the region of €30,000 each.

Before moving out of Dublin, the men had been in partnership, running a small company selling cars from addresses in Clondalkin.

The court heard that there was no permanent business address for the car-sales operation.

Conor Lally

Conor Lally

Conor Lally is Security and Crime Editor of The Irish Times