A LOTTO punter has become the country’s newest millionaire after scooping a life-changing €4 million jackpot.
Over 56,000 players won prizes in the Lotto & Lotto Plus in tonight’s draws.
The numbers in the main draw on Wednesday, March 26, were 03, 08, 18, 20, 30, 43 and the bonus was 46.
And one lucky punter has just won a life-changing sum of €4,005,581 after matching those numbers.
There was no winner of the Lotto Plus 1 top prize.
The numbers drawn were 04, 09, 13, 37, 38 and 46 and the bonus was 15.
There was also no winner of the Lotto Plus 2 draw.
The numbers for that were 04, 25, 27, 32, 38, 42 and the bonus was 30.
The winning raffle number was 1687.
There were 61 winners of the Raffle Prize, receiving €500 each.
The lucky winner is urged to sign the back of their ticket and contact Lotto HQ so arrangements can be made to collect their prize.
It comes after another lucky Irish punter won a life-changing sum in the Daily Million Plus on Monday, March 24.
The winner scooped the Match 5 + Bonus top prize of €500,000.
The lucky player is six figures richer after matching five numbers plus bonus in the Daily Million Plus draw.
The winning numbers were 4, 16, 21, 25, 27, 32 and the Bonus was 13.
There was no winner of the Daily Million top prize draw worth €1,000,000.
The winning numbers were 2, 4, 16, 19, 24 and 28 and the bonus was 7.
DRUGS gang The Family has been hit even harder after six senior figures were arrested in a swoop by Spanish cops.
Twelve members of Ireland’s top drugs mob are currently in custody as part of a global crackdown against the cocaine peddlers — with six people arrested here on Monday.
We can reveal The Family are suspected of being behind up to nine coke trafficking and money laundering operations last year.
Newly-released pictures show the moment armed Spanish police went after six members of the gang, from Ballyfermot in west Dublin, across Monday and Tuesday.
As part of Operation Pereira, the Guardia Civil swarmed a blue BMW on a motorway, with the driver marched away in cuffs.
Other footage shows the mob’s European HQ, a warehouse in the eastern city of Castellón, being stormed — with a man cowering on the ground as officers point the barrels of their guns at him.
This was the same location where 100kg of cocaine was seized last year before it was set to be trafficked to Ireland.
The fresh arrests in the Europol co-ordinated op comes after The Family’s massive drug and money laundering business was blown open by the takedown of the encrypted Ghost network last year.
Messages uncovered from Ghost linked the Irish gang to up to up to nine cocaine trafficking and money laundering operations during seven months in 2024.
Cops were able to seize over €22 million worth of drugs across Ireland and Spain, with hundreds of thousands of euro in cash also confiscated.
Europol have linked several Ghost user handles to members of the criminal network.
And The Family’s leader was connected to a large amount of messages after encrypted devices were seized from four members at the top of the gang last year.
On Monday, Gardai revealed they had arrested five members — aged in their 30s, 40s and 60s — during an early morning swoop.
They today revealed another man, in his 50s, was also lifted on Monday evening in west Dublin.
He is a “storeman” who held drugs in warehouses before they were sent for distribution to dealers around Ireland, we have learned.
We can also reveal that those arrested in Spain are all part of the gang’s “logistics operation”.
Investigators suspect the Spanish branch of the mob were responsible for obtaining drugs.
They then smuggled them to Ireland in secret compartments hidden inside vehicles.
A source told us: “Those arrested in Spain are facilitators but also senior figures within the overall structure of the gang.
“They are a criminal grouping based solely in Spain and they
are an extension of The Family’s international network.”
The first five men lifted here on Monday were all still in custody last night. They include the feared leader of The Family, his two siblings who sit directly below him in the hierarchy of the gang, and two important facilitators.
As part of the long-running investigation, an Irishman was also lifted in Spain last August over a multi-million euro cocaine seizure.
It’s understood he was sent to the country by the gang’s overall leader to “oversee” the huge shipment.
Another source explained it has been a complex investigation, with an extensive international element.
The source told us: “Clearly the breach of Ghost garnered a lot of information which led to huge seizures of both drugs and cash.
“But there is also a vast amount of other evidence which Gardai have relating to the importation and supply of cocaine to Ireland and the gang’s money laundering network during a period of time last year.
“It involves those at the very top of the gang, the director and those closest to him, but also those who were key facilitators and enablers in terms of sourcing, importing and trafficking the drugs and connected to the money laundering aspect.”
The probe against The Family, Ireland’s No1 drugs mob, has been the priority target for the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau for over a year.
The gang, who have been in operation for two decades, have grown to an unprecedented scale as the Kinahans imploded.
They have contacts in Europe and South America plus an intricate money laundering network for their €4 million in monthly profits.
But global law enforcement said last year’s breach of the encrypted Ghost network — specifically used by high-ranking organised crime gangs to communicate — revealed the “sophistication of their communications was in stark contrast to the simplicity of their modus operandi”.
It consisted of installing secret compartments in lorries fitted with cloned number plates.
The vehicles were loaded with drugs at the Castellón warehouse before they were driven an hour away to Valencia, where other legal goods were added.
They would then be driven to France, and on to Ireland.
On one occasion last year, 220kg of hidden marijuana which was destined for Ireland was seized.
The Guardia Civil told The Irish Sun their six arrests this week were on top of others made previously.
They included those of Irish, Spanish, and Colombian nationality aged in their 30s to 50s.
A spokesman explained that The Family network also extended to the Murcia and Malaga regions.
He added: “This network enjoyed a high economic status, which facilitated the collaboration of other individuals and expanded its geographical sphere of influence.”
And he revealed officers have found sophisticated concealments in other vehicles used by the gang in Spain, including cars and trailers.
Overall in Spain, items to the value of over €1 million in cash have been seized as part of their probe.
This included 12 luxury cars — some of them equipped with secret compartments — four international transport trucks, €35,000 in cash, a pistol with ammo, four computers and 35 mobile phones, as well as various documents related to their illicit business.
Following the global operation against the Ghost platform last September, Gardai recovered €15.2 million worth of cocaine, €320,000 worth of cannabis, €100,000 of heroin and €300,000 in cash.
Of those convicted for working for The Family is coach driver Paul Bourke, 56, from Kilkenny, who was moving heroin and Glock pistols for the mob before he was caught.
Another is Hungarian pilot Zoltan Nemeth, 63, who flew €8.4 million worth of heroin into Ireland in 2023.
The Family are “top-tier” Garda targets due to their involvement in the global drugs trade and because of their willingness to use violence.
Their associates are linked to the murder of Cormac Berkeley in 2022.
Gardai have been working through Ghost network devices since they seized 42 of them in raids of dozens of properties last September.
Branded as unhackable, the system was used by hundreds of criminals globally.
But unbeknownst to its users, authorities had hacked into the network and got hold of messages.
