Update: 14 arrested during Garda operation

Update: – 5.35pm

Gardaí have now arrested 14 people and carried out 67 searches during Operation Coronation today.

During the operation Gardaí seized the following:

– Approximately €220,000.00 in euros, sterling, dirham (UAE currency) and old Irish currency

– Deeds to a property in Dubai

– One car valued at approximately €50,000.00

– €100,000 worth of jewellery and luxury watches

– High value clothing items

– Significant evidence to support the investigation including financial accounts and property documentation.

– €23,500 of suspected drugs

– Two cocaine presses

– Two bank accounts have also been frozen containing sums in excess of €119,000

13 men and one woman, aged between 20s-60s were arrested. Three persons arrested for suspected money laundering offences and detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

One person arrested in respect of Section 15 Misuse of Drugs Act in respect of approximately €2,000 of suspected crack cocaine and heroin seized in one search, detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

One person arrested and detained under the provisions of Section 2 of the Criminal Justice 2 (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996 in respect of suspected cannabis herb seized to the value of approximately €20,000.

Six persons charged with offences under Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act. Three others were arrested on penal/bench warrants.

Nine people have been arrested and over 60 searches are being carried out in Counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary today.

As part of Operation Coronation, in excess of 170 members of Gardaí from Limerick, Clare and Tipperary Divisions supported by the Criminal Assets Bureau, Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Emergency Response Unit, the Armed Response Unit and Regional Dog Unit commenced a search operation at over 60 premises in Counties Limerick, Clare and Tipperary this morning at 6am.

The operation is also supported by three teams of Irish Army Search Engineers, the Army EOD team and an Air Corps helicopter.

Currently there are nine people in custody in relation to this operation.

Operation Coronation was established to target organised criminality in Limerick city and its environs. This operation is targeting organised extended criminality, drug trafficking and the financial returns achieved from this type of activity through money laundering.

According to sources, searches were also carried out in the Cratloe and O’Briensbridge areas of Co Clare.

This ongoing operation is being co-ordinated by Limerick Gardaí with the assistance of the national units, primarily the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau with the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Security and Intelligence Section at Garda HQ to address the accumulation of wealth by those engaged in serious and ongoing criminality. It is part of the Limerick Divisional crime strategy and a central plank of the Divisional Policing Plan targeting organised crime.

*Operation Coronation was established to target organised criminality in Limerick city and its environs. This operation is targeting organised extended criminality, drug trafficking and the financial returns achieved from this type of activity through money laundering.