'The Family' rises to top of Irish drug trade after Ghost platform bust

A Dublin gang known as "The Family" has become Ireland's biggest drug trafficking group following the global takedown of the Ghost encrypted messaging platform, The Irish Times reports.

Dublin gang 'The Family' emerges as Ireland's leading drug trafficking group

A Dublin-based criminal gang known as "The Family" has displaced the Kinahan cartel as the largest drug trafficking group operating in the Republic, according to The Irish Times. The gang, led by men from Ballyfermot, is now both the biggest seller of drugs domestically and the primary importer of drug shipments into the State.

The development follows the global takedown of the "Ghost" encrypted communications platform, which compromised four major Irish drug trafficking gangs. Irish criminals were the heaviest users of the platform outside Australia, where Ghost originated. Just over 8 per cent of all devices accessing the network — approximately 100 in total — were located in Ireland.

"The Family" is the principal Irish target of the international investigation into organised criminals who used Ghost. One of the four compromised Irish gangs had also been actively promoting the platform within the Irish underworld, effectively acting as its local agents.

Ghost was set up nine years ago, allegedly by a 32-year-old man living with his parents in Sydney. He was arrested and charged on Tuesday with facilitating organised crime. Australian Federal Police had infiltrated the network, which operated via modified mobile phones, roughly six months prior to the takedown.

What began as Operation Kraken in Australia has produced 11 arrests in the Republic this week, along with the seizure of 153 phones, 42 of which were used to access Ghost. Gardaí have carried out 32 searches since the weekend, resulting in the seizure of cocaine valued at €15.2 million, €350,000 in cash, €320,000 in cannabis, €100,000 in heroin and an amount of cryptocurrency.

Intelligence gathered during the operation has been shared with authorities in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, France, Italy and other countries, with the Garda participating alongside international partners.

Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly, who heads the Garda's Organised and Serious Crime branch, told a Europol briefing in The Hague on Wednesday that the operation was designed to "disrupt, degrade and dismantle" dangerous gangs. "I can assure you, there will be further arrests" in Ireland, Kelly said.

Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland, head of the Garda's Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, confirmed that one of the four Irish gangs targeted had become the most significant drugs organisation in the country. Without naming the group, Boland stated that the Kinahan cartel was no longer the largest drugs gang in Ireland and was no longer shipping drugs into the Republic.

Boland also said Garda investigations were continuing into Irish gangs that had used the EncroChat messaging platform, which was infiltrated by international law enforcement in 2020. Investigation files based on EncroChat evidence were being completed, he added.

Source: The Irish Times