A taxi driver who operated cannabis growhouses all over the country for over ten years and whom gardaí say was linked to the Kinahan organised crime group has been jailed for six years at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Niall Smith, aged 51, of Limekiln Road, Greenhills, Dublin 12, was arrested by officers from the Dublin Crime Response Unit after his growhouse in Tallaght was raided in May 2023.
Gardaí also discovered cash and shotgun cartridges in the house in Killinarden Heights.
The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) confiscated and sold two of his houses in Leitrim and told the High Court he is connected to the Byrne organised crime group, the Dublin branch of the Kinahan gang.
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To all intents and purposes, he was a hardworking taxi driver from Clondalkin in Dublin.
In reality, he was, according to CAB, one of the Kinahan organised crime group's growhouse operators in Ireland, who kept a low profile and did not like the limelight as he cultivated cannabis in wholesale quantities in homes all over the country for over ten years.
The growhouses were efficient set-ups with sophisticated light, heat, ventilation and irrigation systems installed.
Smith set up and ran growhouses in Wexford and Dublin, with plans to expand to Offaly, Westmeath, Longford and Roscommon.
He bought two houses in Leitrim, one in Feenagh on which CAB says he spent over €420,000 refurbishing to a high standard, the other in Toomans, a remote area with surrounding land and barns from where he could operate another growhouse.
CAB confiscated both properties and sold them for over a quarter of a million euro.
Niall Smith was previously caught in 2013 running a growhouse in Courtown in Wexford and received a seven-year sentence which was suspended for seven years.
He subsequently went back to the drugs business.
This time he was caught when officers from the Dublin Crime Response Team raided one of his growhouses in Tallaght in May 2023.
They seized 50 plants at various stages of growth, worth about €40,000 and another €40,000 of cannabis herb.
They also recovered cash and ammunition.
Smith was in the house when it was raided and was caught trying to get out the bathroom window. He told the gardaí he was only there to have a cup of tea with a friend who had left and then to use the toilet.
He said he couldn’t smell any cannabis even though the smell was overbearing as the three upstairs bedrooms had been converted to grow it.
The electricity had been bypassed to avoid detection, and the growing and processing systems in the house were sophisticated.
There were also weighing scales, bags and other drugs paraphernalia recovered.
Smith separated from the mother of his daughter 18 years ago.
She lives in the UK and describes him as a loving and devoted father and a caring and compassionate person. She also said she has been "saddened" by the case.
His son has also been in court to support him.
In the pursuit of Smith’s assets in the High Court, CAB has connected him to the Byrne organised crime group, the Dublin Branch of the Kinahan organised crime group led by the convicted career criminal Liam Byrne.
However, Smith claims he’s a taxi driver who also repairs boats and claimed his money came from undeclared earnings.
He applied for but was refused legal aid to contest the CAB case in the High Court
Judge Jonathan Dunphy today described Niall Smith as an experienced cultivator who was trusted to work in this drugs cultivation operation.
He was not, the judge said, a vulnerable offender or a gardener under pressure.
He had in the past received a fully suspended sentence, so he knew exactly what he was getting into, how to do it and the consequences of getting caught.
He also said this was not a case where he made full admissions. He sought to flee the scene, denied what he had done, took a trial date but only decided to plead guilty after a jury was sworn.
He sentenced him to seven years in prison with the final year suspended.
