Cops have busted attempts by a Chinese gang to bring drugs worth £2m into Northern Ireland.
A six-year-long investigation took another successful twist for the PSNI last week when one of the gang members pleaded guilty.
Around 100kg of cannabis was found during searches in seven different locations in Belfast in November 2018.
Four men and a woman, all Chinese nationals, were arrested during the raids.
At the time of the haul, police linked the drugs to a deal between a Chinese Triad gang and paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.
The PSNI did not say whether they believed it was loyalist or republican paramilitaries involved in the operation.
There was a major development in the long-running case last week when one of those arrested in 2018, 52-year-old Chang Mang Wang, pleaded guilty on a number of charges.
He admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply between February 2018 and November 2018.
Wang, with an address at St Anne’s Close in Belfast, also admitted failing to report to an immigration officer when he arrived in Northern Ireland in June 2018.
He was due to be sentenced at Laganside court in Belfast this week.
Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton PSNI
The court was told some of the other people arrested in 2018 have already been convicted.
A solicitor said the sentences imposed on them were less than the period Wang has already served in custody on remand for the drug offences.
The 2018 raids were led by the PSNI’s Organised Crime Group and supported by the Home Office.
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The PSNI this week said they would not be commenting on the case until after Wang’s sentencing.
However, speaking after the 2018 raids, Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton (inset), from the Paramilitary Crime Task Force, who is now an Assistant Chief Constable with the PSNI, said they were looking into the possibility the drugs were being sold to paramilitary groups operating in Northern Ireland.
“This is a significant haul which demonstrates our continuing commitment to removing dangerous drugs from our communities,” he added.
“There will be people who do not view cannabis as a dangerous drug.
“That is a debate for other people, and as it stands right now, it is an illegal drug.”
He continued: “We have a great concern around cannabis. We see it as being the backbone of the drugs economy here in Northern Ireland. Its impact is far from harmless.
“We then also see associated violence, threats and intimidation linked to the activities of the groups who peddle it here and their attempts to maintain control of the markets.”
Mr Singleton described the seizures as “significant” and praised detectives for their work.
He said: “This is an investigation into the activities of a transnational organised crime group who have a footprint here in Northern Ireland and whose reach extends well beyond that.”
Detectives, he added, did not believe the cannabis was grown in Northern Ireland but had been imported from elsewhere.
He said the gang behind the drugs may be linked to Chinese transnational organised crime syndicates based in China called the Triads.
The Triads are brutal criminal gangs whose influence extend from Asia far across the world.
As well as terrorising China and large parts of Asia, the gangs have also been cashing in on their criminal links throughout the world.
Drugs, in particular, are a lucrative market for the Triads. In January 2019, just two months after the 2018 raids in Belfast, the PSNI seized a further large batch of drugs which were linked to a Triad operation.
Herbal cannabis with an estimated street value of £1m was found during searches of properties at Shore Road in north Belfast and Springfield Road in the west of the city.
As part of the operation, two vehicles were also stopped on the M2 motorway heading out of Belfast, close to the Moneynick junction.
Four men, two aged 29 and the others aged 19 and 38, were arrested.
Again, at the time, the PSNI linked the seizure of the drugs to a Triad gang.
However, attempts by Triads to bring drugs into Northern Ireland go back even further.
In 2014, a court was told Chinese gangs were making £900,000 a year out of a drug dealing racket in Northern Ireland.
The details of the organised criminal operation emerged during the sentencing of a 24-year-old Chinese man who pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of cannabis resin with intent to supply and transferring £50,000 in cash out of Northern Ireland in 2012.
The court was told the drugs were found during police raids at addresses in north, west and east Belfast between August and December 2012.