WHEN CRIME DOESN'T PAY

Crime used to pay for the Dutch drugs baron Jan Hendrik Ijpelaar. It paid
for a mansion on the Kerry coast, Clashnacree House, complete with art
collection, Georgian silver, and offshore island.

It pays no longer. Ijpelaar was arrested in Holland in 1992 and served a
lengthy prison sentence for trafficking in cannabis and ecstasy on a vast
scale. He returned to Ireland in 1997, but fled when he realised that he
was under surveillance. Yesterday the Criminal Assets Bureau seized his
Kerry property, which could be worth in total up to pounds 2m.

That may be only a fraction of one drugs lord's accumulated proceeds of
crime. The profits of his trade are colossal. Very likely he has enormous
sums, and other properties, in the Caribbean or elsewhere.

But whatever illegally gained assets he may have hidden in other countries,
one thing is certain: he can never again use his south-western foothold for
illegal importation of drugs.

The seizure of his property, although the most spectacular raid by the CAB,
is only one of the bureau's many successes. It has proved to be the most
effective weapon in the fight against organised crime. It is rightly feared
by Irish criminals.

Could its mandate be extended to permit the seizure of funds which are held
by prisoners belonging to dissident republican groups but which could be
diverted to terrorist purposes, as relatives of the Omagh bombing victims
have suggested?

There might be a difficulty in establishing that the funds in question had
an illegal origin. But the law also empowers the authorities to seize
assets if there is evidence that they belong to unlawful organisations. The
measures which have proved so effective against ordinary crime might prove
effective against terrorists too.