CROSS-BORDER ARRESTS

Although the details remain sketchy, it is clear that the Garda and the RUC
deserve great commendation for their investigation into a major
money-laundering operation on the Border.

A series of arrests yesterday was the culmination of a painstaking,
three-year operation in which a team of detectives from the Garda National
Detective Unit and officers from both the Criminal Assets Bureau and the
RUC's Financial Investigation Unit traced the alleged links between bureau
de change operations on the Border and extensive criminal activities in
Dublin and Belfast. From what is known, it appears that the proceeds of
drug-trafficking and other crime were being laundered on the Border and used
to fund other foreign criminal escapades.

Garda officers have described the investigation as the most extensive ever
launched under this State's anti money-laundering legislation.

By some estimates, up to pounds 100 million was allegedly laundered through
the Border operation over the past three years.

It appears that several criminal figures, who also enjoyed what might have
been called a footloose arrangement with various paramilitary groups,
operated what was effectively an unlicenced bank from bureau de change
operations on the Border. Aside from allegedly laundering the proceeds of
crime, they also apparently operated various cross-Border VAT frauds and
contraband operations.

The 1994 Criminal Justice Act - the legislation enacted in this State as a
part of an EU-wide campaign to combat money laundering across the Union -
has proved a useful weapon in the State's armoury.

So too has the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and the
National Bureau of Fraud Investigation (NBFI). When the Tampere EU summit
moved last weekend to intensify the battle against money-laundering, the
Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was able to point to the success of the CAB as a
possible role model for other states.

More than any other single initiative, perhaps, the establishment of the CAB
has helped to break up the major criminal gangs which were able for so long
to cock a snook at the authorities.

The establishment of the NBFI has also had a dramatic impact; for years its
predecessor, the Garda Fraud Squad, was given neither the resources nor the
priority it required.

The NBFI, by comparison, has enjoyed strong support from the Garda
authorities and includes a dedicated unit to combat money-laundering. In
truth, the new drive against money-laundering, fraud and white-collar crime
is overdue.

As the recent welter of financial scandals has shown, those who broke the
law in respect of their tax liabilities and even those who operated the
secretive Ansbacher accounts were rarely troubled by the Garda.

It has also been the case that some banks and building societies - who are
required to report any suspicious transactions - took what might called a
minimalist view of their obligations under the Criminal Justice Act. For all
that, both the Garda and the RUC are entitled to be pleased with yesterday's
joint operation.

Indeed, the investigation demonstrates how two police forces operating
within different legal jurisdictions - and backed up with the necessary body
of law - can combine to work effectively.