GARDAI have now frozen over €3.7 million in assets as part of an ongoing investigation onto the activities of a Killarney-based crime gang.
A criminal network, involving a small number of families, was investigated on suspicion of having accumulated assets from deception type criminality throughout the country.
They dealings they were engaged in included roofing, the laying of tarmacadam and guttering works and they regularly targeted elderly or vulnerable people.
The matter has come before the High Court in recent weeks and orders to freeze the assets have been obtained by the Criminal Assets Bureau under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
It is understood that some of the assets involved are luxury residential properties valued in excess of €1 million each.
Other assets include executive vehicles, expensive jewellery and significant amounts of cash while bank accounts were also frozen.
The investigation is linked to Operation Tarmac which involved a series of raids on properties in Killarney in November 2017. A number of houses in the Ballyspillane Estate were targeted as well as another property on Park Road.
Revealed exclusively by Killarney Today.com at the time, the operation involved agents from the Criminal Assets Bureau and a total of 130 Gardai, including members of the armed response unit.
A total of 11 residential properties were raided in the carefully planned early morning operation which was one of the biggest ever Garda investigations in the Kerry area.
A total of nine luxury vehicles were removed from the scene, including powerful BMW cars, X5 jeeps and Mercedez Benz and Audi models and the estimated total value of the vehicles is understood to have been in excess of €400,000.
In addition, more than €100,000 in cash, in a number of currencies, was seized from the homes that were raided as well as Rolex and Cartier watches worth thousands of euro.
As part of the investigation, a number of bank accounts, understood to be holding significant cash deposits, were frozen throughout the country and several documents were removed from the Killarney properties to be evaluated and assessed.
Operation Tarmac in Killarney was part of a nationwide crackdown on rogue and bogus builders being investigated for making exorbitant sums of money from shoddy workmanship.
Superintendent Flor Murphy of Killarney Garda Station declined to comment on the case when contacted by KillarneyToday.com but he confirmed that the matter was before the courts.
It is believed the investigation will come before the High Court again in the coming weeks.
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