[VonBudí]

https://www.herald.ie/news/800k-drug-...m-3017778.html
€800k drug swoop at warehouse in Hassan car scam

By Ken Foy, Crime correspondent
Monday February 13 2012

A WAREHOUSE where detectives seized 2,000 cannabis plants worth €800,000 was also used in a criminal enterprise by one of Ireland's most notorious foreign criminals.

Hassan Hassan -- the Lebanese criminal who gardai believe ordered the murder of his innocent wife Baiba Saulite in a murder that shocked the nation in 2006 -- used the same warehouse in Colbinstown, Co Kildare, before he was busted after a massive garda operation in 2004.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning armed detectives again swooped on the warehouse, which is located near Kilcullen, Co Kildare, and discovered the massive haul.

A local man aged in his 50s was arrested and brought to Newbridge Garda Station in Co Kildare where he was released without charge on Thursday.

A file on the drugs case will now be prepared for the DPP and follow up enquiries are being made by the Garda National Drugs Unit and detectives based at Newbridge.

Sources say that the drugs bust is in no way connected to Hassan Hassan (43) who left Ireland in March, 2010, after serving a number of jail sentences at Portlaoise Prison.

Annoying

A local source explained that this week's bust happened after "gardai discovered the cannabis factory because the diesel generator used to keep the lighting and irrigation system working became loud and was running throughout the night annoying neighbours."

It is understood that a local criminal has forged links with an oriental gang to cultivate cannabis at the warehouse.

The bust in Co Kildare is linked to a seizure at an Industrial Unit near Ballyboughil, Co Dublin on Tuesday evening where 1,500 cannabis plants worth €600,000 were found as well as €240,000 worth of freshly harvested cannabis.

This week's massive drugs bust at the warehouse in Colbinstown happened almost eight years to the day since Hassan Hassan's major car-stealing scam was uncovered by gardai in the same premises.

On that occasion gardai found about 20 top-of-the-range stolen vehicles, all of which were being stripped and prepared for export to eastern Europe. Four men from Lebanon and Syria were arrested, charged and later convicted, including Hassan Hassan who was jailed for four years .

While he was subsequently in jail he linked up with Limerick criminals and a crew of drug dealers from north Dublin. He is now understood to be based in the Middle East.

if any one wants to visited the 5000 plant bust site

https://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&saf...-8&sa=N&tab=wl

[VonBudí]

The Irish Times, 09 Aug 1969.




https://comeheretome.wordpress.com/20...lin-1962-1972/

[VonBudí]

Video from the ''million euro'' malin bust in donegal
The 1.45 video has the best shots, interesting stuff & classy accommodation.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1010/don...ory.html#video

https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...325506071.html

Men jailed for drug plants

BARRY ROCHE

Three men were yesterday jailed for five years for cultivating cannabis with a street value of over €800,000 in a commercial growhouse operation in Co Cork.

Chinese nationals, Jin Ping Chen (26), Zhien Jie Liu (24) and Gui Yu (21), all of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis at Springfield Industrial Estate in Youghal on March 12th last contrary to section 17 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Det Sgt Seán Leahy told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the cannabis-growing operation at the industrial unit had 12 separate compartments with cannabis plants at various

stages of maturity being grown in four of the compartments under specialised lighting conditions.

The parts played by people in drug operations were often categorised in terms of various rungs of a ladder but in the case, the three accused were so far down the operation network, they were not on the ladder at all, he told the court.

The three men had responded to a Chinese website ad for work and came to Ireland illegally and had arrived at the industrial unit in Youghal before they realised that the work would involve the cultivation of cannabis, said Det Sgt Leahy.

They lived at the unit where they were effectively gardeners, watering the plants, moving them from one unit to another and regulating temperatures, for which they were to be paid €350 a week.

Wednesday, 24 October 2012
6,000 cannabis plants found in garda operation in five counties

Over 6,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of €5m, have been seized.

An industrial unit in the Blanchardstown area of Dublin has also been raided and equipment for setting up growhouses has been discovered.

Lighting and irrigation systems, along with compost, flower pots and other equipment necessary to set up a growhouse, were seized.

The operation began just after midday when officers from the Garda National Drugs Unit, along with local gardaí from the counties involved, began a series of raids on five industrial premises.

Four large scale cannabis growhouses, each with between 1,500 and 2,000 plants were found in Swinford, Newbridge, Tramore and Ardee.

Five men have been arrested and are now being detained under drug trafficking legislation.

Two men are being held in Ballina, two more in Tramore and the fifth suspect is being questioned in Drogheda.

Gardaí believe they are connected to two separate criminal gangs, one of which was not only operating its own growhouses but also setting them up for other drug trafficking.

[rebel grower]

good to see busts like this ****s aint satisfied they have to spray criminalise the closet grower

Closeters are safe if you follow the no smell, sell, tell rule. Easier said than done I know but when you're out on the town with your mates after a few beers with loose lips just think to yourself how inconvenient it would be to be setting in a cell on a Friday night.

[VonBudí]

https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...nd-229437.html

Cannabis growhouse operation goes underground
Thursday, April 25, 2013

By Sean O’Riordan
The gang accessed the containers through the floor of a mobile home near the village of Ballyvourney.

Gardaí say it is the first bunker-style growhouse of its type found. They described it as “very sophisticated”, with its own power and water supply.

Armed with a search warrant, members of the Cork West Divisional Drugs Unit, raided the growhouse shortly after 7pm last Tuesday.

They found about 150 plants in various stages of growth, which have an estimated street value of €100,000.

Three men, believed to be in their early to mid-30s and from Eastern Europe, were arrested.

Two were being detained at Bandon Garda Station and the third in Macroom Garda Station under section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act, 1996.

The growhouse was concealed under the mobile home in a woodland clearing at Derreenaling — about 3km south-west of Ballyvourney, near the Cork/Kerry border.

“This wasn’t done with a spade and shovel. Machinery had to be used to dig out the site for the containers,” said a senior Garda source.

He added it was the first underground growhouse of its type he had seen.

“We were used to mainstream republicans in the past and now dissident republicans using underground bunkers for hiding arms, training purposes, and hiding people. But we haven’t see this type of concealment with growhouses.”

Gardaí cordoned off the growhouse and yesterday morning started a full analysis of its contents. It is the second major growhouse seizure to occur on the Cork/Kerry border in past few days.

Last Thursday night, gardaí from Kanturk seized 204 cannabis plants in various stages of growth and about 1kg of processed cannabis worth in the region of €170,000.

The cannabis plants were found in sheds outside a family home near the village of Rathmore, Co Kerry.

A number of members of a family were in the house when gardaí raided it. There were no arrests at the time.

However, a Garda spokesman confirmed yesterday that a mother and son had since been arrested in connection with that investigation. “They were released without charge and a file is to be prepared for the DPP.”

Meanwhile, in an unrelated drugs seizure, gardaí arrested two men in their 40s following the discovery of cocaine, cannabis resin and cannabis herb worth €20,000 on the northside of Cork City.

Elsewhere, gardaí last night arrested two men, seized a number of stolen vehicles, and uncovered a cannabis growing facility in Ballycoolin, Dublin. The cannabis was worth about €125,000.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime...cork-1.1372389

Gardai uncover underground cannabis growhouse in Cork



Gardaí were last night continuing to question three men arrested following the discovery of a sophisticated underground cannabis growhouse with plants worth over €100,000 in Co Cork.
Members from the West Cork Divisional Drugs Unit arrested three Lithuanians yesterday when they raided a caravan on rented land at Dereenaling in Ballyvourney near the Kerry border.
Officers discovered a sophisticated underground bunker constructed from two 40 foot long containers with heating and lighting equipment hidden beneath the caravan.
According to gardaí, the gang had excavated out land with a JCB and buried the two containers before placing a caravan over the site with a trap door leading to the bunker.
The bunker was equipped with a diesel generator to power electric lights being used to mature the plants while the gang had also siphoned water from a local stream to help grow the plants.
gardaí in West Cork, who have considerable experience in investigating cannabis growhouse operations, described it as one of the most”ingenious and sophisticated we’ve come across”.
“It was very well constructed and very well concealed - the fact they were using their own generator meant that their ESB bill never soared which is often a tell tale sign,” said one Garda source.
The three men, who are aged 46, 44 and 31, were arrested at the scene following the raid by gardaí at around 7.30pm on Tuesday evening under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act.
Two of the men were brought to Bandon Garda Station and the third was brought to Macroom Garda Station for questioning about the growhouse operation.
Gardaí sealed off the scene overnight and yesterday Garda technical experts carried out a detailed forensic examination of the bunker for fingerprint and other DNA evidence.
gardaí also began removing the plants which are of varying stages of maturity and they are due to sent for analysis to the state laboratory to get a more precise figure for their value.
gardaí were last night trying to establish how long the cannabis growhouse operation had been in existence producing cannabis which they believe was being supplied to the local and national markets.

Barry Roche

[uaeoiw]

Hi VonBudi, I wonder if I can ask a favour.
You quoted a newspaper article about me in irish bust thread, 10-31-2011, (Epileptic man grew drugs to 'stay calm').
(I never said anything about 'staying calm'. I don't believe my lawyer did either. The reporter made that up.
I wrote a statement, which my lawyer handed to the judge. It wasn't read out in court. My position was that CBD has been demonstrated to have antiseizure properties, and that high CBD strains are prescribed for that specific purpose in countries where medical marijuana is permitted.)

I'm on social welfare in Dublin, and it gives my name and address, shows up in google. I'm concerned about possibly ending up homeless because of it, if the landlord, or apartment management see it. My tenancy contract is coming up for renewal shortly.
Can I ask you if it would be possible to remove the post?
It would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Aengus.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/images/smilies/tiphat.gif

[VonBudí]

sorry about that, hope alls going better for you.

[uaeoiw]

Thanks mate. I appreciate it. Aengus