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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
Niall Smith, who is originally from Crumlin, south Dublin, is said by Cab to have operated grow-houses throughout the country for more than ten years.
The Kinahan Cartel operation was directed by Liam Byrne’s gang and was being supervised by lower-level members of the mob.
Officers from Dublin’s Crime Task Force Unit, acting on the information that a grow house had been set up by Smith in Wexford, carried out a series of raids.
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.
The sophisticated grow house at Courtown, Co Wexford, was discovered in 2013 where Smith was present at the time.
He later received a seven-year sentence, suspended for seven years.
The same year, 140 plants were found at an industrial unit in Swords along with Smith’s fingerprint, but no charges were brought.
At the time, it was believed there were plans to set up more grow-houses in Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Roscommon and Leitrim.
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.”
At the centre of Cab’s case are properties in Leitrim, where they say Smith had planned to move his grow-house operation to get away from garda attention in Wexford.
This belief was “fortified” by the discovery of equipment and materials at the Leitrim property associated with cannabis cultivation.
A Cab officer stated he believed an old house at Toomans, Co Leitrim had been bought to be converted into a grow house on which Smith spent €86,000.
“The remoteness of this location and the materials found when the property was searched support this conclusion.”
“Given the poor state of the old dwelling at this site and the costs of renovating such a property up to a minimal living standard shows there is lack of evidence to suggest it was going to be used as a habitable residence.”
Smith claimed he was living off income from renting out a room in his Clondalkin home and was able to get by on €200 a week.
Cabmade the case €422,355 was spent on building a house and on a site at Drumany, Co Leitrim bought for €15,000 in 2011.
Smith, who initially opposed the 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.
Looking for free legal aid to fight the High Court case earlier this year, it was heard that Smith had a stroke in 2023 and is no longer able to work and gets €232 a week in disability payments.
He also disputed the valuations on the work done on the house, which he said he did a lot of by himself spending €35,500.
The court was told that Smith doesn’t have any assets “at the moment” and that his home in Clondalkin is heavily mortgaged.
His counsel said Smith has “no real income to defend these proceedings.”
Opposing the application counsel for Cab said he still had access to funds and had sold off two boats.
Judge Alex Owens refused the application for free legal aid.
“}]] A taxi driver has been exposed as the Byrne organised crime gang’s cannabis grower in Ireland after being forced to hand over property to the Criminal Asse… Read More