{"id":306728,"date":"2026-02-19T20:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/306728\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:15:10","slug":"gang-boss-suspected-of-directing-weapons-shipments-and-drug-violence-from-cell-in-irelands-high-security-prison-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/306728\/","title":{"rendered":"Gang boss suspected of directing weapons shipments and drug violence from cell in Ireland&#8217;s high-security prison arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">The dangerous crime group operate on an international level and are suspected of trafficking automatic weapons and drugs including heroin and cocaine into IrelandMan suspected of using illegal phone cell to direct operations\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Portlaoise Prison. Photo: PA\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages_1230798233.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Portlaoise Prison. Photo: PA<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The leader of a criminal gang has been arrested in Ireland\u2019s maximum-security prison on suspicion of directing firearms shipments and drug-related violence across the country from inside his jail cell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Detectives attached to the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) have carried out a major operation against the Eastern European gang who have become a \u201cpriority target\u201d for garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dangerous crime group operate on an international level and are suspected of trafficking automatic weapons and drugs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,898,43,60422,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-306728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-latest-news-ticker","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-news-in-90-seconds","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}