Three men have appeared in court charged in relation to a seizure of €1.28m in suspected proceeds of crime in south Dublin this week.
Chinese national Kwan Wang, aged 36, who lives in Hong Kong; Vladislavs Temmis, aged 54, a Russian speaker from Latvia; and 47-year-old Ik Joo Kang, from South Korea, appeared before Judge Stephanie Coggans at Dublin District Court.
The arrests were part of an operation targeting an organised crime group.
Gardaí with the Dublin Crime Response Team stopped and searched a car in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, on Thursday, where they found €197,760 and arrested one man.
During follow-up searches in south Dublin, gardaí seized an additional €1,086,175 in cash, bringing the total amount of money recovered in this investigation to €1,283,935.
Each man faces two counts under section 7 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 for possessing proceeds of criminal conduct, which carries a maximum 14-year sentence.
The three men, who do not have stated addresses in Ireland, were dealt with separately and listened to the proceedings with the aid of interpreters. They spoke only to communicate with their legal representatives.
The court adjourned ruling on requests to grant free legal aid to the three men.
They were remanded in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court next week, Mr Kang and Mr Temmis on Tuesday and Mr Wang the following day.
Judge Coggans also ordered that interpreters be available to assist at their next hearings.
