The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has sold two properties linked to organised crime groups in Limerick and Longford for over €250,000.
A farmhouse, stables and 18.5 acres of land which includes a horse trotting track in Kealderra, Bodyke in Co Clare was sold this week for around the asking price of €175,000.
CAB seized the property from William McInerney, whom CAB says is a trusted member of the McCarthy Ryan organised crime group.
The gang has been involved in a murderous feud for over 20 years with the Dundon organised crime group which has cost 17 lives.
CAB says the property was bought to disguise the proceeds of drug dealing and other organised crime activity.
A track was built on the land for organised illegal sulky races, which CAB says were then used by criminals to launder money through gambling and horse sales.
McInerney, 52, was a jockey and horse trainer for other members of the gang who trained and stabled the horses at the property in Co Clare.
McInerney has convictions for drugs, theft, assault and passing counterfeit currency.
He bought the farmhouse and land at an auction for €233,000 in 2010 and paid a cash deposit of €23,300.
McInerney was on social welfare but claimed he got the money through the sale of another property, investments in Lanzarote, the sale of a Toyota Land Cruiser.
He also said that he had found "€5,000-€6,000" in another house he bought.
He said he got the cash deposit through a combination of "horse trading" money which was "under the counter" and two people, "Marie" and "Cha" he met for a loan of €156,000, but "didn't sign any forms at that meeting".
CAB says it identified and dismantled as part of its investigation a complex money laundering scheme using various bank accounts and mediums in Ireland and Spain.
The High Court ruled the property to be the proceeds of crime before CAB seized and sold it.
CAB also this week sold a three-bedroom detached cottage in Co Longford on just under a half hectare of land with an outhouse used as a bar and gym for €79,000.
CAB says the cottage, which was extensively renovated, was the home of the Longford criminal Edward "Blondie" Stokes, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for a violent assault on a man in a pub in Granard in 2018.
The house was bought in 2014 for €24,000 which Mr Stokes said came from an inheritance, family loans and wedding gifts.
An estimated €400,000 worth of renovations were carried out on the property including the installation of the bar known as "Blondie's Boom Boom Bar".
However, Stokes claimed his father-in-law built the bar for free.
CAB says Edward "Blondie" Stokes is a member of the Stokes Organised Crime Gang, along with his uncle Edward "Sonny" Stokes.
It says the gang set up a sophisticated illegal 'chop shop’ business to break down and resell vehicles and machinery stolen in the UK.
CAB has also received an offer for a nearby parcel of land and two outbuildings valued at €10,000 which CAB also seized from Stokes.
The head of the Criminal Assets Bureau, Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins, has said the seizures are part of CAB’s "deny and deprive" strategy whereby trophy homes, luxury goods, high powered cars and cash are declared the proceeds of crime and taken from criminals.
