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The murderous Kinahan cartel runs a €1billion drugs and guns empire, a court was told yesterday.

Criminal Assets Bureau bosses blew the lid on the global crime gang as they applied to sell off luxury cars, property and jewellery seized from its alleged foot soldiers.

CAB lawyers named Liam Byrne, brother of Regency Hotel shooting victim David, as a “trusted lieutenant” of Daniel Kinahan, son of Dubai-based gang boss Christy.

Senior counsel Remy Farrell said Byrne’s associates are involved with the Kinahans, who run a worldwide drugs and gun-trafficking business estimated to be worth €1billion.

He also told the court jobless Sean McGovern - also injured in the 2016 shooting -never explained how he could pay €150,000 cash for a house in Dublin.

CAB was seeking an order from the High Court that would allow it to sell valuable assets it has seized which it says are linked to the Kinahan cartel.

The court heard an application against a number of individuals who CAB says are associates of Byrne.

The bureau claimed that Byrne is head of a gang from the Crumlin/Drimnagh area which is central to the deadly Kinahan-Hutch feud which has resulted in ten murders.

Lawyers for Byrne, his partner Simone McEnroe, and his close associate Sean McGovern, told the court that all three that they would not take part in the proceedings in any substantive way.

Last year, the court rejected applications for free legal aid on behalf of McGovern and a number of other people who claimed ownership of the property.

The assets originally included 29 vehicles, a motorcycle, houses in Crumlin and Clondalkin, jewellery, and cash.

Separate proceedings in relation to a house in Crumlin, which Byrne's sister Maria says she owns and which CAB says also comes from the proceeds of crime, were adjourned.

According the bureau, the associates of Mr Byrne act as a network and front for him, and their wealthy lifestyles are not in keeping with legitimate sources of income.

(Image: Patrick Cummins Photography)

It believes the associates are involved with the Kinahan gang, which is behind an international drugs and firearms trafficking business estimated to be worth up to €1bn Euro.

Remy Farrell SC, for CAB, said Ms Justice Carmel Stewart reserved her decision after hearing only from Mr Farrell.

There was no opposition on behalf of any of the respondents to the application to sell the seized assets under proceeds of crime legislation.

Mr Farrell also pointed to a company called LS Active Car Sales, originally a registered firm but now a sole trader in Mr Byrne's name.

He argued that the company was used by Byrne and his associates to launder the proceeds of drug dealing, and that its cars were used as "a currency to transfer wealth".

Mr Farrell said: "Central to [the operation] is LS Active Car Sales, and the irony is that whatever else is said about it, it was not in any sense active."

He said that the business was involved in very little buying and selling, but that it maintained high-end vehicles which "were handed out to people involved in criminality presumably for the purpose of payment."

It was also claimed that the vehicles were normally registered in the names of people who did not use them.

If a driver of one of the vehicles Was stopped by Gardai, it was alleged that they were being driven on a "sale and return" basis to another garage.

Counsel argued that CCTV footage of LS Active Car Sales over a 29-day period showed almost "no activity consistent with car dealership".

Mr Farrell said: "Presumably, the business is used more as a clubhouse for those involved."

He added that the business was used to fund other activities, including that it spends "so much" on an international level, despite primarily being involved in car sales.

Meanwhile, Mr Farrell also said that Sean McGovern - who was injured in the Regency Hotel shooting in 2016 - provided no explanation as to how he acquired a property in Crumlin without a mortgage, despite being unemployed.

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Mr McGovern allegedly paid €150,000 in cash for the house, a payment which was routed from a trust company in Mauritius to a bank in Ireland.

Mr McGovern had also claimed ownership of a Rolex watch and €10,000 in cash.

A judge reserved her decision on whether CAB can sell the items seized.