Home bought for use as Kinahan cartel growhouse sells for half the price spent on it
The Kinahan-linked Byrne Gang had planned to use the house as Drumany in Co Leitrim after their operations in Wexford had attracted too much garda attention.
A HOUSE bought to be used by a cannabis growhouse operation has been sold for less than half the price spent on it before it was seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
The Kinahan-linked Byrne Gang had planned to use the house as Drumany in Co Leitrim after their operations in Wexford had attracted too much garda attention.
Taxi driver Niall Smith believed by gardaí to have run the cannabis-growing set-up, bought two remote properties in the county.
Niall Smith
The property at Drumany was bought in 2011 for €15,000 but Cab estimated that €422,355 was spent on building a house on the site.
It sold for €206,000 at auction today in which four bidders competed to buy the property and house which had been refurbished to a high standard.
The reserve price of €125,000 was met early in the auction process.
A second house at Toomans, Co Leitrim had also been bought to be converted into a grow house on which Smith spent €86,000, according to Cab evidence.
The home in Leitrim
That is now due to go for auction next month with a reserve price of €25,000.
Cab said Smith was involved in the 'large-scale cultivation of cannabis' on the direction 'of a faction the current Kinahan Organised Crime Group namely FreDdy Thompson and Liam' and was being monitored by lower level members.
Garda intelligence indicated more grow houses were operating or being set up in Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Roscommon and Leitrim, according to Cab.
Inside the house
The two properties were at the centre of Cab's case against Smith to have them declared the proceeds of crime.
Smith, who initially opposed the Cab case, had said he is a taxi driver who also does boat repairs and denied any involvement in crime and that his money came from undeclared earnings.
He said he was living off income from renting out a room in his Clondalkin home and was able to get by on €200 a week.
The Sunday World previously revealed how Smith had been exposed as the Byrne gang's cannabis grower in Ireland after being forced to hand over property to Cab.
Originally from Crumlin, south Dublin, is said by Cab to have operated grow-houses throughout the country for more than ten years.
Smith was suspected of using the cover of his taxi business to transport the cannabis from remote rural areas back up to the Crumlin area for sale.
A sophisticated grow house at Courtown, Co Wexford, was discovered in 2013 where Smith was present at the time.
The same year, 140 plants were found at an industrial unit in Swords along with Smith's fingerprint, but no charges were brought.
One officer who investigated the Crumlin native described him in an affidavit as 'very shrewd in his criminal enterprise'.
He used as few people as possible in the operation 'with a view to reducing his exposure to law enforcement and remaining undetected',
'These grow-houses appear to be large in scale and professionally and efficiently run.'
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