Gardaí expect to pursue their first prosecutions under a new law which makes it illegal for employers to hire undocumented workers following Thursday night's raids in 10 lap-dancing clubs.
A total of 101 people, five of whom were men, were arrested in the major operation involving searches by uniformed and plain clothes gardaí in 10 premises in Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Galway and Dundalk.
Ten immigrant women have been charged with offences under the Aliens Act for being in the State illegally. A further 71 immigrants were found to be working illegally in breach of the Employment Permits Act, according to gardaí.
Some of these were registered as students and some had work permits which had expired, while others were on tourist visas, a senior Garda source said. One man was charged with a drugs-related offence.
More than €100,000 in cash as well as small quantities of cocaine and cannabis were seized in the raids by gardaí from several units, including the Garda National Immigration Bureau, the Criminal Assets Bureau and the fraud and drugs divisions. The operation was headed by the Assistant Commissioner, Mr Kevin Carty.
Computers and financial records were also seized and follow-up searches were carried out in homes as well as solicitors and accountants offices in Cork and Dublin yesterday, according to the Garda source.
Gardaí said yesterday 22 cases were still being investigated. The late-night raids were part of an ongoing nationwide operation, called Operation Quest, launched under the Illegal Immigrants Trafficking Act 2000.
The five Dublin clubs which were searched were Angels and Strings on Leeson Street, Club Lapello on Dame Street, and on the north side of the city Playmates on Parnell Street and La Petite on Great Denmark Street. A club in Cork was raided, as were two clubs in Limerick, one in Dundalk, Co Louth and one in Galway. None of the clubs was actually closed and they are free to continue trading.
A Garda source said the aim of the raids was to establish whether immigrant women working in the clubs were being trafficked into the State as well as being moved around to different clubs in Dublin, Dundalk and Limerick. Under the Employment Permits Act 2003, passed this year, employers found to have hired migrant workers without required work permits face fines of up to €250,000 and 10 years in prison.