Kingpin: Gareth Quinn is believed to lead the mob Killer: Thomas Hinchon Killer: Thomas Hinchon
A VIOLENT crime gang has set up Ireland’s first industrial drugs factory after flying over two Chinese chemists to show them how to make ‘zimmos’ and steroids.
The gang – dubbed ‘The Krays’ – bought machinery from China, believed to be worth an estimated €500,000, to set up their Breaking Bad laboratory and have learned how to mix and press the drugs themselves.
Armed robber Gareth Quinn is believed to head up the west Dublin gang, who are also believed to be responsible for flying a helicopter drone into a high-security jail to drop off a consignment of drugs.
Quinn’s mob have been left reeling since their operation was shut down just a few months ago. They had set up a complex distribution network and even developed packaging before the premises was busted in July, in what is the first major wholesaling plant of its kind discovered in the country.
A month earlier they were believed to be behind a daring plot to get drugs, including zimmos, into Wheatfield Prison using a high-tech drone which was fitted out with a goPro camera. It is understood that the gang had spent €2,000 on the drone and another €4,500 to fit it out so it could carry the consignment of drugs – destined for Quinn’s brother Ian, a 33-year-old armed robber.
Gareth Quinn is believed to head up the gang, along with two brothers from Ronanstown in Clondalkin, who were previously nicknamed ‘The Kray Twins’ by caged killer Thomas Hinchon, who worked with them during his reign of terror.
One of the brothers is before the courts on heroin charges and cannot be named. The pair, who have pet dogs called Reggie and Ronnie, are known for their violence and have tight links with the IRA. They were schooled in armed robbery and enforcement by a senior republican figure who was also said to have mentored the notorious Wilson brothers, Eric, Keith and John.
Another man arrested during the operation was Barry Donnelly (37), from Tallaght. In 2011, both he and Quinn were charged with possession of cannabis for sale or supply after a grow-house was busted in Manor Kilbride, Co. Wicklow. At the time, the Garda National Drugs Unit searched a house and seized 170 cannabis plants and two pill machines.
However, in recent months the gang are believed to have moved their operation up a level and officers were amazed with what they found after they burst into a lock-up in Crumlin last July. Gardai from the National Drugs Unit thought they had discovered an ecstasy unit, but were stunned to discover a laboratory which had been pumping out the street drugs and wholesaleing batches of body-building steroids.
Gardai seized machinery, chemical components and up to 50,000 tablets in a series of raids and arrested four known criminals and one of their girlfriends. The gang’s operation was so advanced that it is understood they produced the tablets themselves, having flown in Chinese experts to teach them how to mix the complex Zopiclone, which is sold on the streets as zimmos.
Gardai are now working closely with the Irish Medicines Board as they prepare a file for the DPP, as the substances are not strictly banned in Ireland. However, sources say they are confident that they will be bringing charges against the mob.
Gareth Quinn is a well-known criminal. In 2001, he was one of four men charged in connection with an attempted bank raid in Abbeyleix, Co. Laois, that ended in the death of a detective. He was charged with being a passenger in a stolen car in relation to the incident in which Detective Sergeant John Eiffe was shot dead when police opened fire during the bank raid.
At the time of the trial he fled the country, but in 2004 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob the AIB banks and allowing himself to be carried in the stolen car. At the time, then Chief Superintendent Noel White, of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations told the court that the amount of money the gang could have got away with would have been “in the millions”.
He had handed himself over to gardai after his fellow conspirators, including Kinahan enforcer Kevin Lynch, were sentenced to 10 years each by Portlaoise Circuit Criminal Court. He was handed a seven-year sentence, but the last two years were suspended.
Quinn’s operation was busted after armed detectives raided the lock-up at Crumlin and later a premises at an industrial estate at Greenhills Road in Tallaght. It was at the lock-up that they believed they had discovered an ecstasy tablet factory and took possession of pill-making machines.
Five separate police raids followed in Tallaght and Clondalkin and the gang were arrested.
