Four Dublin men have €17,600 in cash forfeited

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Judge Karen O’Connor ordered the forfeiture of €17,600 found on four Dublin men as they prepared to travel from Dublin Airport to Malaga on one-way tickets. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that customs officials stopped the men in February 2016 and seized the cash after hearing contradictory explanations for its use.

Kieran Kelly BL, for the State, told the judge that the State’s case was that the cash represented the proceeds of crime or was intended for use in criminal conduct. The court heard that later investigations linked the men to each other and to the drugs trade in west Dublin through garda criminal intelligence.

Mr Kelly said one man, stopped with €12,000, told officials it was to buy an apartment in Malaga and that €6,000 belonged to his father. He later said the money came from a gym and a second-hand car business, with no documentary evidence because it had been accumulated in cash. His father said he had around €8,000 and that it was to furnish an apartment they had already bought.

The report said a third man had €2,500 and described it as holiday spending money, while a fourth had €1,500 and said he was self-employed. Officials considered the cash to have been pooled. Mr Kelly said the four men knew of the State’s application and had declined to take part in the proceedings.