THE GARDA CRIMINAL Assets Bureau (CAB) recouped over €1 million for the exchequer over the past 48 hours from the sale of properties linked to criminals in Limerick, Dublin and Waterford.
Head of CAB, Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins said it showed that if individuals splash their ill-gotten cash, their assets will be seized by CAB and sold back to the exchequer.
“The taking of these properties sends a very visible message to the communities in which these people reside and who have been benefitting from the proceeds of crime,” said Det Chief Supt Gubbins.
CAB today sold two properties in Limerick for a combined €341,000 linked to Limerick gangster Kieran Keane Jr, which were deemed the proceeds of crime by the High Court.
Keane is a son of murdered organised crime group boss, Kieran Keane Sr, who was tortured and shot dead in a gangland hit in Limerick, in 2003.
Keane Jr is understood to be living between Spain and Limerick, and has been a “driving force” in organised crime, gardaí told the High Court.
Keane’s late father, Kieran Keane Sr, was kidnapped, tortured, shot in the head and his body dumped on a country lane at Drombana, Co Limerick.
Five members of the McCarthy-Dundon crime gang, fierce rivals of the Keane gang, were each jailed for life for the murder.
Keane Sr’s nephew, Owen Treacy, was also kidnapped and stabbed 17 times in the same attack. However, he survived and his sworn testimony in court against the five killers was key in their convictions and sentences for life for murder.
One of the five, David ‘Frog Eyes’ Stanners (51), of Delmege Park, Moyross, Limerick, who had serious heart disease, died while serving his life sentence after he ingested cocaine in his cell, at Mountjoy Prison, on 25 October 2023.
Gardaí told the High Court that Kieran Keane Jr is involved in organised crime and has invested large sums of cash in luxury goods, cars and property.
Despite Keane Jr having little or no recognisable source of legitimate income, he had ties to at least three homes, and cars and he had also travelled to Spain, Dubai, UK, and Lapland, gardai told the High Court.
The court also found that Keane Jr could not explain the source of €101,000 in an AIB bank account held in his name.
The two properties linked to Keane Jr were sold in an online auction held by BRG Gibson Auctions today.
The first property, 7 Sarsfield Court, Garryowen – a mid-terrace three-bedroom house – was sold for €173,000, some €73,000 over the appraised market value, after six bidders vied for the house.
The second property, 12 The Path, Garryowen – an end-of-terrace, three-bedroom house- sold for €168,000. This was €48,000 above the appraised market value, with two bidders involved.
Yesterday, CAB sold a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house at Ratoath Road, Dublin 7, from Cabra-based drug dealer David Waldron, for €490,000 – €145,000 above its advised minimum value.
Waldron, (49), who also had a €1.6 million mansion seized by CAB, could not explain where he had got the money to buy his properties.
High Court Judge Alexander Owens, found Waldron’s property was the proceeds of crime, who he also found was a “major player in the illegal distribution and sale of drugs”.
CAB also sold a crime proceeds property yesterday from Tipperary man John O’Connor Jr (44), of Carrick-on-Suir, who was convicted of involvement in a €4.7 million tax fraud and money laundering in Stockholm, Sweden.
The four-storey, end of terrace building at O’Connell Street, Waterford, was sold at auction for €255,000.
Speaking following the sale of Keane Jr’s properties today, CAB boss Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins said: “In the last two days the Criminal Assets Bureau sold four properties which were deemed to be the proceeds of crime, realising in excess of a million euro.”
“It also reflects the cooperation between the Criminal Assets Bureau and the local gardaí on the ground in these communities and it obviously sends a message to the wider public that CAB is targeting individuals in their communities who are benefitting from the proceeds of crime,” added Gubbins.
