SHADOW KINGPIN

BY MICHAEL O'TOOLE and SONYA MCLEAN A GANG boss was last night beginning a 15-year jail term after he was caught with drugs and cash worth more than €10million.

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Andrew Pender, who gardai said had been under the radar before he was identified as running the massive operation, was caught with €8.9million of drugs and €1.1million of cash in an operation in July last year in Dublin.

The operation was spearheaded by the Garda Dublin Crime Response Team - set up two years ago to crack down on mid-tier gangs which are bigger than local outfits, but smaller than national and international mobs like the Kinahan cartel.

And Garda Assistant Commissioner Paul Cleary, who oversees policing in Dublin and is in charge of the DCRT, yesterday told this newspaper after the sentencing of Pender, 52, that mid-tier gangs were getting bigger and bigger.

He said: "I know from my own personal experience that every year we are seeing larger and larger quantities of drugs and sometimes cash with them.

"The Dublin Crime Response Team, since being set up two years ago, has seized over €48million worth of drugs and over €14million in cash and gold bullion.

"That gives an indication of those targeted mid-level groups, what they are capable of."

And Asst Cmmr Cleary also said Pender controlled the gang officers smashed in the operation but also delivered cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy and ketamine himself.

He said: "Andrew Pender was managing and controlling a sophisticated drugs cell and he was responsible for it.

"He was also observed delivering large quantities of drugs into communities around our city so it was a very significant result here today and very much targeted at the mid-tier, mid-level drug-dealing gangs."

GUILTY