{"id":315533,"date":"2026-02-24T23:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315533\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T23:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:31:19","slug":"gardai-seize-merchandise-associated-with-international-organised-crime-gang-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315533\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed seize merchandise associated with international organised crime gang \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garda\u00ed<\/a> have found gang affiliation clothing and memorabilia as part of searches against the international Black Axe fraud and money laundering gang.<\/p>\n

The homes of 11 senior gang members, also known as the Neo Black Movement (NBM), were raided. <\/p>\n

The Garda has also named the gang, which originated in Africa, for the first time. It said that the group\u2019s Irish operation has been linked to the theft and laundering of \u20ac94 million since 2020. Some 1,400 potential suspects have been identified to date, with 636 arrests. More than 300 suspects have been charged with gangland offences and money laundering. <\/p>\n

The Irish Times has also learned garda\u00ed seized a copy of the global gang\u2019s constitution. Security sources in Ireland believe it is the first time the document has ever been found by a police force in a western country.<\/p>\n

Merchandise produced to demonstrate gang affiliation \u2013 including caps, medals and even ties \u2013 were discovered in Garda raids at 11 locations across the country in a major operation on Tuesday led the Garda\u2019s National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB).<\/p>\n

Sources said similar memorabilia was also found in searches last year, though news of that find did not emerge publicly at the time. <\/p>\n

Some of the items found on Tuesday, including caps and bags, had been produced specifically for the Black Axe cell here, featuring \u201cIreland\u201d and also slogans such as \u201cIreland Zone, Stay Safe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some of the caps featured the word \u201cuhuru\u201d, a Swahili term meaning freedom or independence. The medals and neck ties featured the Black Axe gang\u2019s logo \u2013 a black axe being used to smash handcuffs \u2013 and the phrase \u201cNBM of Africa\u201d. A small number of items were produced for Black Axe members in \u201cIreland-UK\u201d. <\/p>\n

While the Black Axe gang in Ireland initially specialised in laundering large sums of money via the Irish banking system, after it was stolen abroad, its tactics have changed. It is now primarily focused on taking over the bank accounts of unsuspecting victims in Ireland, often via bogus texts purporting to come from pillar banks.<\/p>\n

The Black Axe gang\u2019s merchandise found on Tuesday had been awarded to gang members to signify their rank in the gang and their loyalty to it. The searches were carried out, under Operation Skein, in Sligo, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Kilkenny, Kildare, and Meath. The GNECB supported by the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau and local uniform and detective units.<\/p>\n

\u201cGarda\u00ed seized a number of electronic devices of evidential value,\u201d the Garda said in a statement, with sources adding the devices were mobile phones, laptops, USBs and other items.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of Operation SKEIN, the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau continues to work closely with law-enforcement partners across several jurisdictions and is supported in its efforts by Europol and Interpol,\u201d the Garda added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis co-ordinated international approach reflects the scale and sophistication of the criminal network under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed have found gang affiliation clothing and memorabilia as part of searches against the international Black Axe fraud…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,123194,8788,82653,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-315533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-cyber-crime-bureau","tag-europol","tag-garda-national-economic-crime-bureau","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315533","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=315533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}