Drugs and guns found at the back of a house in Kildare are linked to bloodbath at Dublin hotel

The seizure of drugs and guns in the back of a house in Co Kildare in 2008 is linked to Friday's bloody events in the Regency Hotel in Dublin. Images of two gunmen dressed in garda-style SWAT uniforms and carrying high-powered AK47 weapons have shocked people. A man dressed as a woman and another accomplice were also seen fleeing the venue with handguns. Dubliner David Byrne, who was shot dead at the hotel's reception desk, had close links with an international Irish-led crime cartel led by Spain-based Christy Kinahan (57). Crime agencies regard him as the biggest wholesaler of illicit drugs for Irish crime gangs. In February 2008, gardaí searched a warehouse at the back of a house in Clongorey, near Newbridge and seized one tonne of cannabis. A further 500kg of the drug was seized in a car in Kill as part of the same operation, bringing the value of the drug seized to €10.5 million. Three firearms were also seized, including a rifle with telescopic sight and silencer, a pump-action shotgun and a single barrel shotgun. Two Irishmen were convicted for their role in the Kildare find and two others who were charged and went on the run. The massive seizure was traced back to Kinahan and suddenly shone a spotlight on his masterplan of using small food companies to export his drugs to his home country. The property in Clongorey included a warehouse with forklift and trucks, all being used to move large consignments of drugs quickly around the country once they had entered Ireland from Spain in trucks on car ferries. Once here, the drugs, mainly cannabis and cocaine, were sold on wholesale in multimillion-euro batches to crime gangs nationwide. Up to that point, in early 2008, Kinahan had not aligned himself to one gang in Ireland. Kinahan first convictions date back to the late 1970s and involved house breaking, car theft, burglary, handling stolen goods and forgery. Regarded as one of the most intelligent Irish criminals involved in the international drugs trade, Kinahan speaks several foreign languages, including Dutch and Spanish. During a prison term in the 1990s he studied for a degree course in French and refused temporary release so he could complete it. He nowhas a villa near Marbella which had an estimated worth about €6 million at the height of the property boom there, and also regularly uses a nearby apartment worth in the region of €1 million.