Money laundering suspect a ‘close associate’ of man jailed in Donegal

A man arrested in Dublin last week as part off a major investigation into money laundering is said to be a ‘close associate’ of a criminal who was jailed in Donegal last month over a €205,000 fraud.

Detectives from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau have been carrying out a country-wide probe into SIM-swapping, money laundering and account take-overs.

A file is being prepared for the DPP in relation to a man lifted by senior detectives in Tallaght on Thursday.

“This man is suspected of having a more senior role in the criminal organisation than the defendant who was jailed in Co Donegal last month,” a Garda source said.

It is expected that there will be more arrests as part of the operation.

In July, Ani Enabulele (25) of Glendale Manor, Letterkenny was jailed for three years.

Enabulele was before the court charged with 185 offences.

In all a total of €205,201.93 was taken from dozens of personal bank accounts ranging in sums from around €1,000 up to the largest of €50,000.

The court heard how the accounts were accessed when the gang hacked the accounts of people online and pretended they had lost their passwords.

In between the gang had liaised with some phone shop employees and bought SIM cards in the same telephone number as the bank account holder but using a different phone provider.

When the bank sent a text message with a new password to the account holder, the gang would then access the account and then begin taking cash.

Enabulele was caught when he was tracked by Gardaí using his IP address.