Nine arrested during gun and drug inquiry in west - The Irish Times - Wed, Jun 02, 2010: "arrested men are members of the Traveller community and are part of a wider Galway-based crime syndicate that gardaí believe is led by two brothers.
The investigation into the gang’s activities has been going on for six months, but the men’s arrests were hastened by the arrest of a man in Belfast at the weekend for drug smuggling offences. That man is a suspected member of the Galway-based gang. He was detained by the PSNI at the weekend in Belfast after he was found to be in possession of cocaine with a value of €60,000 having disembarked a flight from Spain.
The arrests of the nine other gang members in Galway yesterday occurred during a series of co-ordinated searches of 21 addresses that began at 7am. The operation, led by Asst Commissioner John O’Mahony, involved gardaí from across Galway and members of the Organised Crime Unit, Criminal Assets Bureau and the Armed Regional Support Unit.
Garda sources said the Galwaybased gang of settled Travellers has links to other drug gangs in Sligo and Limerick. They are believed to deal not only in drugs and guns but are also suspects for burglaries across the west and for armed robberies, including attacks on cash in transit vans. The gang is also believed to be behind an extortion and intimidation racket where those being targeted were threatened with extreme violence"

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