The Family
■ 4 HELD AS 100KG COKE SEIZED IN ‘HAMMER BLOW’ ■ ENCRYPTED CRIM CHAT CRACKED IN A GLOBAL OP ■ MOB ‘LARGELY FILLED A VOID LEFT BY KINAHANS’
GARDAI have dealt a hammer blow to the country’s second-largest crime gang — after an encrypted network used by mobs around the world was dismantled.
Elite officers from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, who have been quietly investigating the activities of a Dublin-based mob known as ‘The Family,’ searched an articulated lorry at a farmhouse in Co Wexford on Monday night and uncovered over 100kg of cocaine worth an estimated €7 million.
Four men were arrested at the scene near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford — one of whom is suspected to be a significant player in the gang’s day-to-day operations.
A fifth man was meanwhile arrested in Dublin — and over €300,000 worth of cash was seized.
Meanwhile other properties were searched in the Meath and Co Dublin area, with sources saying that other smaller gangs were also targeted thanks to this encrypted network breakthrough.
The successful intelligence led operation came after Australian police, in tandem with Europol and America’s FBI cracked a new encrypted mobile phone service that crime gangs across the world have been using to communicate.
Details
The network is understood to be similar to Encrochat — an encrypted network that was successfully dismantled in 2020.
Europol and Gardai are set to hold major press conferences today in which further details of the breakthrough will be announced.
‘The Family’ — considered Ireland’s main supplier of heroin and the secondlargest criminal organisation in the country, second only to the Kinahan cartel, have long been a top target of gardai — and sources say they have finally been dealt a hammer blow this week.
Sources have described one of the arrested men as a “vital cog” in the gang’s ability to ship drugs around the country.
The arrested man is understood to own and run a transport company that operates articulated trucks that transport goods in and out of Ireland.
Sources say gardai now hope to target the very top tier of the gang and bring them to justice.
‘The Family’ mob is run by two west Dublin-based brothers — one of whom is currently before the courts.
Many of the gang’s members have already served prison time for serious offences.
The gang has its roots in the Ballyfermot,
Clondalkin and Tallaght
areas of Dublin but in recent years has established connections across the country and internationally.
Sources say the mob has grown in its influence in recent years, and has largely filled a void left by the crippled Kinahan cartel.
The seizure this week is the latest in a series of recent Garda victories against the gang.
Last July, gardaí seized €3m worth of cocaine from the gang which was found in suitcases in a house in Clondalkin.
There were also multi-million-euro seizures intercepted on private planes and boats.
Other seizures against the mob in 2019 included a March raid when almost €300,000 of heroin and cocaine was seized by the DOCB.
Raids
And in June of 2018, the Criminal Assets Bureau was involved in raids in which eight Range Rovers and two BMWs with a total value of €700,000 were seized.