GARDAÍ HAVE identified a large number of bank accounts in the Republic which they believe were being used by the Irish-led crime cartel based in Spain and now under investigation by police forces across Europe and beyond.
Just over 50 searches have now been carried out in Dublin and Meath at residential properties and at the offices of accountants and solicitors.
Small cash-based retail businesses have also been targeted in searches in the Republic.
Investigators believe the businesses were being used to launder drugs money, and that the deposits in the bank accounts are the proceeds of drug dealing. A substantial six-figure sum was found in one account and gardaí believe the holder has no legitimate means of income.
A team of detectives at the Criminal Assets Bureau and a dedicated money laundering unit attached to the Garda National Drug Unit are now following the money trail.
They are analysing paperwork, telephones and computers seized during searches carried out since the co-ordinated international operation began at 4.30am on Tuesday.
Detectives are looking for proof of property purchases and other investments which they hope will tie multi-million euro deals to the drugs gang led by Dubliner Christy Kinahan. The 53-year-old separated father of three heads the international cartel now being targeted by the Garda and the police forces of Spain and the UK as part of Operation Shovel.
Investigators in Dubai, South Africa, Brazil, Belgium and Cyprus are also assisting in identifying property investments made by the gang in those countries. Gardaí have also uncovered a betting scam, based around horse-racing, which was used to launder money.
When 700 police officers in Ireland, the UK and Spain made their series of dawn raids, they arrested a total of 34 people.
In Spain 22 suspects were arrested, including Christy Kinahan, and the Jennifer Guinness kidnapper John Cunningham (58), as well as seven other Irish people. Four Spanish solicitors were among those arrested.
Those arrested in Spain are due to appear in court before the weekend. They can be detained without charge for up to two years under Spanish law. In Britain, 11 people were arrested, all of whom are suspected of facilitating the importation of cocaine and cannabis from Spain for distribution to gangs in major British cities. They were released without charge yesterday.
In the Republic, one person was arrested. The man, who is in his 20s, was still being questioned in Store Street Garda station in Dublin last night. He is from the north inner city and was arrested recently in connection with a tiger robbery in which more than €7 million was stolen from the Bank of Ireland in College Green, in Dublin’s south inner city.
It is understood about 20 bank accounts have been identified here connected to the Kinahan gang. A small number of key players in Kinahan’s Irish operation have also been identified here, but have not yet been arrested.
Gardaí believe Kinahan had set up small front companies on the pretence of transporting mainly foodstuffs from Spain to customers in Ireland and England.
A small fleet of trucks is registered to the companies in both jurisdictions. The front companies also own modest warehouse and storage facilities in both countries.
Gardaíbelieve Kinahan’s gang transported foodstuffs through the companies on trucks via car ferry from Spain to Ireland and England. However, after a period it began hiding hauls of drugs, sometimes worth up to €10 million, in the freight.
The drugs were then transported on the front companies’ trucks to their warehouses in Ireland and England. The scam was detected in February 2008 when gardaí raided a property in Co Kildare and found 1.5 tonnes of cannabis, valued at €10.5 million.