LAST UPDATE | 7 Oct 2020
A LITHUANIAN CRIME gang involved in human trafficking and international drug dealing suffered another blow following a major garda drug and gun seizure.
At around 11am yesterday, gardaí from the Meath Divisional Drugs Unit conducted a search operation at a business at Rathfeigh.
During the search, approximately €570,000 worth of MDMA tablets, around €156,000 of suspected MDMA powder, €140,800 worth of suspected cocaine, €80,000 worth of suspected cannabis herb and around 6,000 Xanax tablets worth €12,000 were seized.
In total, the drugs are worth an estimated €958,800.
Cash to the value of €489,120 was recovered by gardaí.
A Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun, two Walter 9mm handguns, two silencers and 75 rounds of 9mm Luger and Fiocci ammunication were also found. The guns have been sent to the Ballistics Unit for analysis.
A man in his 40s was arrested by gardaí and is being held for questioning. He is suspected of being one of the gang’s “leading members”, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Aside from the drug-running, the man has previously come to the attention of gardaí for orchestrating a fake car accident scam, which netted him over €200k.
This is the latest in a series of raids targeting the Lithuanian criminals, who control significant amounts of the heroin trade nationwide.
Gardaí, along with their counterparts in Lithuania and Europol, have landed significant blows to the gang in the last six weeks. As a result, garda drug units tasks with policing these criminals have noticed a significant decrease in the gang’s activity.
At the start of September, gardaí along with Lithuanian police and members of Europol raided a number of premises across the island of Ireland, arresting 18 suspected members of the heroin gang. The arrests were made here, in the North as well as in Europe.
This international day of action against this heroin gang resulted in five people who were arrested in Ireland being brought before a special sitting of the High Court for extradition proceedings. This resulted in four of the individuals remanded in custody to the High Court at a later date while the fifth individual was remanded on bail to the High Court at a later date.
Gardaí believe there are over 100 people who have been trafficked into Ireland to carry out work for the gang.
While this is not the exact same gang which was targeted yesterday in the search, it is another arm of the Lithuanian mafia, which is controlled by one big crime family in Lithuania itself.
With reporting by Sean Murray
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