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EXCLUSIVE
LAUNDERER CAGED
Inside how money launderer stashed €53,000 in bunches of cash for Dublin crime mobs, as money launderer jailed
Crime Editor
- Published: 8:00, 9 Apr 2023
THESE are the bundles of cash recovered from a money launderer who worked for a gang in the pay of the Kinahan cartel.
Our exclusive images show how Carl Buckley, 38, stored €53,000 in €50 and €20 notes.
The money mule was working for a south Dublin mob who sourced their drugs from Daniel Kinahan’s narco terrorist group.
But the taxi driver’s involvement in organised crime – which included him transporting over €1million for his bosses – is now over after he was caged this week for three years.
Buckley was banged up after he was caught transporting the cash by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau in Swords, north Dublin, in February last year.
‘PROFESSIONAL ENABLER’
One source said: “Buckley is recognised as a professional enabler and his job was to transport the cash earned from the distribution of drugs.
“Organised crime gangs can’t exist without people like Buckley who are under the radar and who are willing to transport large sums of cash from criminal activity.”
Following his arrest, dopey Buckley gave Gardai access to his mobile phone and they recovered a number of encrypted messages.
A court heard how the messages found on his phone established that his boss was a ‘Mr Brownstone’.
€1MILLION IN LEDGER
Investigators believe this man is a major criminal from south Dublin who has a long-standing association with the Kinahan mob.
Cops later swooped on Buckley’s home and recovered a ledger detailing transactions of “in excess of €1million, easily”.
Dublin Circuit Court heard he got involved in the drugs gang after accepting a loan from a “particular person” to buy his child a PlayStation 5 gaming console.
Buckley is one of three “professional enablers” who have been caged for money laundering in recent times. Also jailed for his role in the same criminal enterprise as Buckley was Dylan Byrne, 27, from St Mark’s Avenue, Dublin.
Byrne received a five-year sentence after he was caught driving a van with a sealed compartment containing over €320,000 in cash.
SECRET COMPARTMENT
And our exclusive images show the cash found inside his van after the secret compartment – operated by hydraulics – was discovered by Garda investigators.
Following Byrne’s sentencing, Judge Martin Nolan described him as a “vital cog” in transporting money for organised crime.
The judge also said there was evidence of Byrne’s “comprehensive involvement” in criminality.
Gardai recovered messages of his communications with a “significant player” in organised crime.
Byrne claimed he had been under pressure to do a “favour” for a childhood friend, who was the person “you don’t say no to”.
And as part of our revelations on the criminals running money laundering operations for Ireland’s major crime gangs, we also show images of the cash linked to 35-year-old Declan McDonald of Harelawn Drive, Clondalkin.
On this occasion, McDonald was working for ‘The Family’ organisation when he was caught with €400,000 on January 19, 2022.
CASH STUFFED BAGS
Our images show how illicit cash was stuffed into bags and suitcases.
Due to his dodgy decision to work for ‘The Family’, McDonald was hit with a five-year sentence.
Judge Nolan said: “Money is what organised crime is all about and this man was trusted to store and package this money and was going to get instructions about what to do.”
McDonald’s sentence behind bars comes after ‘The Family’ money man Darren Hoey, 48, of Oak Drive, Ballacollig, Mountmellick, Co Laois, was handed a seven-year term in 2021 after being caught with €2.7million in cash.
These recent convictions for money laundering come as the Director of Public Prosecutions made representations to the Appeal Court for sentences for the crime to be increased.
A legal source told us: “This crime is something that the courts take very seriously.”
It is believed he was working for the mob run by ‘Mr Big’ but his main employers were a Dublin crime gang connected to senior Kinahan cartel figures in Ireland.
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