GARDAÍ HAVE BEGUN a major search operation in Dublin.

The raids of 20 premises around the capital are connected to serious organised crime.

They have seen premises linked to the motor trade as well as homes searched.

They come on foot of search warrants issued to officers attached to the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.

According to gardaí, the operation is as a result of an ongoing multi-agency investigation involving the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, including the Special Crime Task Force, “into serious organised criminal activity in the Dublin Region and the suspected laundering of the proceeds of such criminality”.

Gardaí say that the raids are ongoing.