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CAB seize car, diamond rings and drug cash found in gangster girlfriend’s underwear

Judge Alex Owens said this week it was “reasonable” to believe the VW Golf, two diamond rings €5,000 in €50 notes were “funded by the drugs trade”

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A stash of drugs cash found hidden in his girlfriend’s underwear has been left unclaimed by the latest member of the Sligo-based Irwin gang to be targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Ian McMorrow, described in the High Court as being “actively involved the sale and supply of drugs” in the region, didn’t challenge a CAB bid to have his car and cash declared the proceeds of crime.

The case has highlighted the links between the Irwin Organised Crime gang and the mob previously headed up by convicted gangster Barry Young with connections all over Ireland and abroad.

Judge Alex Owens said this week it was “reasonable” to believe the VW Golf, two diamond rings and €5,000 in €50 notes were “funded by the drugs trade.”

McMorrow’s girlfriend Claudia Gethins claimed the rings were an inheritance while the cash was found hidden in her bra, the High Court was told.

The car and propertywere seized in garda raids in July 2021 targeting the gang in which McMorrowacted right-hand manto leaderPatrick Irwin, who himself has previouslybeen stripped of assets by C.

McMorrow’s criminal career and connections with other drug dealers were detailed in affidavits submitted to the court as part of the CAB case.

McMorrow also worked closely with a cousin of Barry Young, recently sentenced at the Special Criminal Court for directing a criminal organisation.

Garda believe that while Irwin was in prison 2018, Ian McMorrow built up his own gang thanks to his brother Kenneth’s connections with Dublin criminals, according garda evidence detailed in court.

His brother Kenneth is married to a sister of Patrick Irwin, Catherine, a former soldier who was kicked out of the Army after obstructing garda trying search Kenneth.

Their wedding in 2018 was attended by a number of high-profile criminals from Sligo, Meath and Dublin, according to one ofthe affidavits filed by CAB.

The Irwin gang and the one previously controlled by Young have connections that stretch all along the west of Ireland, Northern Ireland and are linked to Dublinbased drug dealers with international connections.

Details of the CAB investigation into McMorrow emerged this week including how he paid for his 172-reg VW Golf for cash in Northen Ireland.

An Audi he traded in for the Golf had previously been bought for more than €10,000 in Co Meath when he had no legitimate means to acquire that amount of cash.

While two lodgements of €10,000 and €12,000 had been made to his bank account from compensation claims, later transactions didn’t correspond with the purchase of the Golf.

A “substantial amount” of duty, almost €8,000, was paid on the car by McMorrow’s grandmother who the judge said had no interest in the car.

Judge Owens said McMorrow and Gethins are people of “no means” who live in a house they don’t own and don’t have the resources to account for the car, jewellery or cash.

He said the explanation is in the affidavits thatMcMorrow is a drug-dealer “working with other shady characters”

The judge appointed a receiver with the power to sell off the car and jewellery and ordered the proceeds from the sales to be lodged in an account until they are forfeited to tate.

McMorrow, who has more than 50 previous convictions, is a violent drug dealer selling cocaine and cannabis, who has lengthy prison sentences

While still in his 20s he was jailed for making threats to shoot someone during a drunken melee for which he served a prison sentence.

Last October he got a three-month suspended sentence for obstructing garda when he was seen throwing away a plastic bag and a mobile phone as he was being chased by garda near his home.

In 2019 he was prosecuted for dangerous driving after members of the Divisional Drugs Unit attempted to stop him getting away from them.

The car was driven at high-speedon the wrong side of the road, mounted footpaths and only came to an end when a tyre blew out.