"Garden centre owner Nathan McDonnell's trial had heard how he helped the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel move €32million worth of the highly-addictive synthetic drug by storing a machine on his business premises. He had stored the equipment at his Ballyseedy garden centre and restaurant premises for several months before gardaí, acting on intelligence, swooped on the port of Cork in February 2024 before it could be shipped out of the jurisdiction."
"Nathan McDonnell was to be paid €150,000 by an Irish crime gang for storing a large machine containing drugs with a street value of €32.4 million and arranging for its transportation to Australia. Justice Melanie Greally said, when handing down the sentence, that an aggravating factor was the link with an organised crime gang with international reach, associated with drug trafficking, money laundering and violence on a large scale - as was the vast amount of drugs involved."
An upscale detached family residence at Clashaphuca, Ballyroe, Tralee, is advertised for €795,000. The property stands on a mature, private, landscaped 0.2 hectare site within a small cluster of four luxury homes minutes from Tralee town centre and adjacent to the Fenit Greenway. Its owner, garden centre and restaurant proprietor Nathan McDonnell, was sentenced to 12 years by the Special Criminal Court after involvement in the State's largest crystal meth seizure. McDonnell stored a machine containing €32 million worth of synthetic drug on his Ballyseedy premises for months before gardaí intercepted it at Cork port in February 2024. Financial difficulties left the family home as one of the few remaining linked assets, which is now on the market.
Read at Irish Independent
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