{"id":44636,"date":"2025-09-26T13:04:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44636\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T13:04:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:04:06","slug":"cab-sells-two-homes-linked-to-criminals-for-e250000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44636\/","title":{"rendered":"CAB sells two homes linked to criminals for \u20ac250,000"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has sold two properties linked to organised crime groups in Limerick and Longford for over \u20ac250,000.<\/p>\n<p>A farmhouse, stables and 18.5 acres of land which includes a horse trotting track in Kealderra, Bodyke in Co Clare was sold this week for around the asking price of \u20ac175,000.<\/p>\n<p>CAB seized the property from William McInerney, whom CAB says is a trusted member of the McCarthy Ryan organised crime group.<\/p>\n<p>The gang has been involved in a murderous feud for over 20 years with the Dundon organised crime group which has cost 17 lives.<\/p>\n<p>CAB says the property was bought to disguise the proceeds of drug dealing and other organised crime activity.<\/p>\n<p>A track was built on the land for organised illegal sulky races, which CAB says were then used by criminals to launder money through gambling and horse sales.<\/p>\n<p>McInerney, 52, was a jockey and horse trainer for other members of the gang who trained and stabled the horses at the property in Co Clare.<\/p>\n<p>McInerney has convictions for drugs, theft, assault and passing counterfeit currency.<\/p>\n<p>He bought the farmhouse and land at an auction for \u20ac233,000 in 2010 and paid a cash deposit of \u20ac23,300.<\/p>\n<p>McInerney was on social welfare but claimed he got the money through the sale of another property, investments in Lanzarote, the sale of a Toyota Land Cruiser.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that he had found &#8220;\u20ac5,000-\u20ac6,000&#8221; in another house he bought.<\/p>\n<p>He said he got the cash deposit through a combination of &#8220;horse trading&#8221; money which was &#8220;under the counter&#8221; and two people, &#8220;Marie&#8221; and &#8220;Cha&#8221; he met for a loan of \u20ac156,000, but &#8220;didn&#8217;t sign any forms at that meeting&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>CAB says it identified and dismantled as part of its investigation a complex money laundering scheme using various bank accounts and mediums in Ireland and Spain.<\/p>\n<p>The High Court ruled the property to be the proceeds of crime before CAB seized and sold it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Large bathroom at the 'Blondie' house in Longford\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/00233a73-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nA bathroom at a detached cottage in Co Longford that CAB sold this week<\/p>\n<p>CAB also this week sold a three-bedroom detached cottage in Co Longford on just under a half hectare of land with an outhouse used as a bar and gym for \u20ac79,000.<\/p>\n<p>CAB says the cottage, which was extensively renovated, was the home of the Longford criminal Edward &#8220;Blondie&#8221; Stokes, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for a violent assault on a man in a pub in Granard in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The house was bought in 2014 for \u20ac24,000 which Mr Stokes said came from an inheritance, family loans and wedding gifts.<\/p>\n<p>An estimated \u20ac400,000 worth of renovations were carried out on the property including the installation of the bar known as &#8220;Blondie&#8217;s Boom Boom Bar&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>However, Stokes claimed his father-in-law built the bar for free.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Edward Blondie Stokes\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/00233a6f-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nEdward &#8216;Blondie&#8217; Stokes<\/p>\n<p>CAB says Edward &#8220;Blondie&#8221; Stokes is a member of the Stokes Organised Crime Gang, along with his uncle Edward &#8220;Sonny&#8221; Stokes.<\/p>\n<p>It says the gang set up a sophisticated illegal &#8216;chop shop\u2019 business to break down and resell vehicles and machinery stolen in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>CAB has also received an offer for a nearby parcel of land and two outbuildings valued at \u20ac10,000 which CAB also seized from Stokes.<\/p>\n<p>The head of the Criminal Assets Bureau, Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins, has said the seizures are part of CAB\u2019s &#8220;deny and deprive&#8221; strategy whereby trophy homes, luxury goods, high powered cars and cash are declared the proceeds of crime and taken from criminals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has sold two properties linked to organised crime groups in Limerick and Longford&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-44636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44636","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=44636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}