{"id":584151,"date":"2026-07-13T22:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/584151\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:52:11","slug":"polish-led-violence-as-a-service-crime-gang-owned-arsenal-of-guns-seized-in-midlands-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/584151\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish-led \u2018violence as a service\u2019 crime gang owned arsenal of guns seized in Midlands \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An organised crime gang led by a senior crime boss from Poland<\/a>, running a \u201cviolence as a service\u201d operation, owns an arsenal of military grade guns found in the Republic. <\/p>\n

The operation over the weekend resulted in one of the most significant seizures of guns from any organised crime group in Ireland for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Searches carried out at six locations in Laois<\/a> and Kildare<\/a> between last Friday and Sunday uncovered 11 firearms \u2013 including three machine guns and eight pistols. Some of the guns were loaded, with other ammunition also seized as well as silencers and telescopic sights.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed<\/a> also seized a variety of illicit drugs \u2013 heroin, cocaine and cannabis \u2013 valued at \u20ac700,000, though the seizure of the firearms is regarded as far more significant.<\/p>\n

Two men in their 40s, one Irishman and another from Poland, were arrested and subsequently charged. Both are due to appear before a sitting of Athy District Court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The searches, by the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the key unit in the Garda\u2019s Organised and Serious Crime branch, were the latest strike against the Polish-led group designed to degrade its capabilities. <\/p>\n

The bureau was supported by personnel from the Garda Eastern Region, the Dublin Crime Response Team and the Emergency Response Unit. <\/p>\n

The targeted gang has been involved in drug dealing, importing and supplying firearms, and money laundering for years. Its key figure, a Polish man based in the Midlands, is now as much of a target for the Garda as some of Ireland\u2019s best known and most established gang leaders.<\/p>\n

The gang has members, mostly from Europe, across the country and has also been running its \u201cviolence as a service\u201d operation for some time. This includes taking payment from other gangs in return to attacking their rivals or intimidating people who own them money.<\/p>\n

The \u201cviolence as a service\u201d operation effectively means other crime gangs can outsource drug-related intimidation and debt collecting to the Polish run operation. <\/p>\n

This frustrates the Garda\u2019s investigation of those crimes, including petrol bombings, because the perpetrators have no direct link to the people they are targeting.<\/p>\n

Instead, they are working under contract to attack people who are strangers to them, which greatly increases the risk of attacking the wrong people or homes.<\/p>\n

Garda sources said the gang has proven resilient during their investigations and aided by the fact some of its members appear to have access to mobile phones in prison, enabling them to continue their activities.<\/p>\n

Investigations into the gang leader, who already has a serious drugs conviction in Ireland, are well advanced. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An organised crime gang led by a senior crime boss from Poland, running a \u201cviolence as a service\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,3625,11763,11,12,15,16,5,379,7,8],"class_list":["post-584151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kildare","tag-laois","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-poland","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116915125846056227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}