Market trader Dermot McManus had been arrested as part of Operation Coronation, which was launched by gardaí against the city’s money-laundering networks.

This is the man described as a close confidant of the infamous Limerick gang boss Christy Keane who had almost €50,000 hidden in his house.

Market trader Dermot McManus had been arrested as part of Operation Coronation, which was launched by gardaí against the city’s money-laundering networks.

Earlier this summer he admitted to his role in money laundering for the gang at the Special Criminal Court, where his close connections to Keane were revealed.

The 52-year-old was described by gardaí as “a trusted confidant” of Keane, the leader of one of the country’s “most vicious and ruthless” gangs.

During one court hearing a garda witness said that at the time of his arrest McManus asked a family member who was there to call Christy Keane and tell him of his arrest.

McManus’s home in Keating Park in Killalee, Co. Limerick, was targeted in the massive Garda operation with Army search teams called in to assist officers.

Officers found €28,550 in socks on top of a wardrobe, while £11,795 was discovered in a jacket pocket at the house.

McManus’s arrest followed what gardai described as a “significant development” in Operation Coronation.

At a bail hearing in January this year, Det Gda John Sheahan from Henry Street Garda Station gave evidence of McManus’s close ties to Keane.

Objecting to bail, the officer cited fears that he would commit more offences, that he was a flight risk and was a known close associate of Christy Keane.

Det Gda Sheahan said the Keane organised crime group is involved in the distribution of drugs and firearms on both a national and international level.

The three-judge panel was also told the gang was involved in a feud with the McCarthy/Dundon crime group since 2000, with feud-related incidents dating as far back as 1993.

He added that Mr McManus had family ties to the UK and that a cocaine press was also found at the rear of his property when it was searched in June 2020.