Huge seizures of drug money reflect Ireland's changing crime scene

So much cash is being seized now Garda raids against drug gangs reveal that the amount of money returned to the treasury by the force’s lead anti-drug unit is sometimes on par with Office for Criminal Assets (Taxi).

Gardaí also believe the vast sums of cash now being seized, often found in vacuum-packed blocks of banknotes, reflect the changing landscape in the Irish underworld.

The Kinahan CartelIreland’s police network has been wiped out by Garda investigations in the almost decade since the Kinahan-Hutch feud began. Some domestic gangs that have profited from their demise are not yet as adept as the cartel at constantly moving and laundering drug trafficking proceeds, sources said.

The Garda National Drugs and Organized Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) has just returned €3 million – seized in cash – to the treasury, as several criminal cases against criminals have been concluded. That amount matches the amount Cab has returned to the Treasury in some years, although the agency has also returned much larger amounts in other years.

While Cab was founded in the 1990s for the specific purpose of seizing criminal assets, the GNDOCB combats all aspects of drug trafficking and organized crime in general.

Cab must prepare a case against his targets and present the evidence to the Supreme Court to convince a judge that the assets he wants to seize represent the proceeds of crime. However, the GNDOCB regularly discovers and confiscates large sums of money during raids before confiscating it once criminal charges against the suspects are completed.

Since the Drugs and Organized Crime Bureau was established in 2015, it has seized €20 million in cash and returned it to the treasury. That money has been discovered in both a relatively small number of seizures of several million euros and in very frequent seizures of smaller amounts.

“The majority of the 20 million euros in cash that we deposited into the treasury account after the completion of the criminal proceedings are proceeds from drug trafficking,” said the head of the GNDOCB, Chief Inspector Seamus Boland. “It represents some of the money handed over by people engaged in casual drug use across the country.

“All this money is invested in serious and organized crime and leads to increased drug supply, violence and drug-related intimidation. Demand feeds supply.

“An Garda Síochána, through the Garda National Drugs and Organized Crime Bureau, will continue to target and dismantle the national priority high-risk criminal networks that impact community safety.”

In a statement, Garda headquarters said the money seized came from drug purchases by “those whose lives have now been blighted by lifelong drug addictions” and others who used drugs “in a recreational setting”. It added that people who buy drugs “must know that their action is directly linked to the human misery and carnage” caused by crime and the financing of the lifestyles of major drug dealers.

The increase in cash seizures has contributed to an unprecedented increase in money laundering arrests in the Republic.

Figures obtained by The Irish Times last month show that as many money laundering arrests were made in the first nine months of 2024 as in the entire previous year. The number of arrests is expected to reach between 650 and 700 by the end of the year, a tenfold increase since 2018.

Garda sources said the number of arrests for money laundering was increasing as An Garda Síochána was now focusing more on identifying and investigating them.

While previously drugs and weapons were the main focus in targeting groups involved in the drug trade, many of these investigations now focused heavily on money laundering, Garda sources said.