Multi-million euro property scam hit

Multi-million euro property scam hit


Martin 'Marlo' Hyland: murdered gangland boss
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Go By Tom Brady Security Editor
Monday June 04 2007


GARDAI have smashed a multi-million euro plan by criminals and terrorists to buy property overseas with forged euro notes.


The scheme involved the gang formerly led by murdered crimelord Martin "Marlo" Hyland and senior Provisional IRA members.

Their aim was to set up a massive money making racket by flooding the Bulgarian property market with forged notes with the aid of local connections.

But the plan was discovered by detectives attached to Operation Oak, the special initiative drawn up by garda chiefs to tackle Hyland's gang.

They seized €500,000 in fake notes to be used in the multi-million euro scam after a raid on a house on the northside of Dublin and arrested a suspected close associate of Hyland.

The man had been regarded by Hyland as a trusted aide and had been minding the cash, laid out in €500 notes, a denomination not used in this country.

Subsequent inquiries established that the money was part of a "war chest" being built up by the gang and IRA personnel to launch their property portfolio in Bulgaria.

Senior garda officers are satisfied that the scam was not linked to a previous scheme by the Provisionals to launder some of the €38m from the Northern Bank robbery.

But detectives have determined that at least two of the IRA's leading activists in Dublin were heavily involved in the scam.

Activities

One of the IRA suspects is well known on the southside of the city and has already been under investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau due to previous financial activities here.

The other lives on the northside and has been listed as one of the key players in a big tax rebate scam being controlled by IRA members in the construction industry.

Another former IRA man that turned to "ordinary" crime is also suspected to have been linked to the scam. He is currently in custody in Britain in connection with a separate crime.

The forged euro notes seized was one of a number of body blows delivered to the gang that had been built up by Hyland into one of the biggest and most successful in the country.

Oak, which was set up in October 2005, has also been responsible for the seizure of drugs worth €42m in the past 20 months as well as 16 firearms, including a sub machine gun, rifles, handguns and sawn-off shotguns, stolen vehicles and a large amount of cash.

But the series of successes last year resulted in bitter recriminations within the upper ranks of the gang.

Two of his closest associates were suspected of being responsible for murdering Hyland as he lay in bed in a house in Scribblestown Park in Finglas last December.

A power struggle erupted after his murder but it is understood the gang has been taken over by a veteran northside criminal.

- Tom Brady Security Editor