Alan Ryan: Real IRA boss was shot dead last year TOM BRADY SECURITY EDITOR – 24 JUNE 2013
GARDAI have uncovered the main drugs distribution depot used by a trafficking gang whose leader is suspected of ordering the murder of Real IRA boss Alan Ryan last year.
The depot was uncovered in a business park in west Dublin at the weekend after a surveillance operation by the garda national drugs unit.
Inside, gardai found over 100kg of cannabis herb and resin with an estimated street value of at least €1m.
They also seized more than 100 boxes which had previously been filled with drugs and over 20 pallets of material used to disguise the drugs as they were being imported.
The find was made at the North West Business Park in Blanchardstown and gardai believe the shipment had been imported from Spain, disguised as a consignment of olive oil.
Officers believe that since Christmas, the gang has been responsible for half-a-dozen shipments of cannabis and ecstasy, imported from either Spain or the Netherlands.
The weekend seizure resulted from surveillance that was set up by gardai immediately after a different shipment had been uncovered in the area in recent weeks.
TRAFFICKING
Armed detectives detained a 39-year-old man from Drogheda at the scene and he was taken to Blanchardstown garda station for questioning under the drug-trafficking legislation.
He was later released from questioning but was immediately rearrested in connection with a warrant linked to another offence and was taken to Mountjoy jail. A file on the weekend haul will now be prepared for the DPP, who will determine if criminal charges should be brought.
Gardai said last night that investigations into the find were continuing and there could be further arrests.
This is the sixth consignment of drugs to have been seized by the national unit in the past year from associates of the gang leader, who is from the northside of Dublin and is regarded as heading up one of the biggest organised crime groups in the country.
He is believed to have ordered the hit on Alan Ryan last September because of an ongoing feud between the two gangs as the terrorist boss tried to intimidate him and other top criminals into handing over a slice of their profits from drug trafficking, robberies and extortion rackets.
Ryan's murder was the culmination of a series of armed confrontations between thugs linked to the two groups.
