THE UNTOUCHABLES HAVE BEEN TOUCHED

In the aftermath of Veronica Guerin's death, the bad guys are finally
getting their just deserts, says LIZ ALLEN

`HE'S rightly screwed now. And not before bloody time. F**k the bastards
who've been makin' millions for years. They're all screwed now ...''

Eloquent words. But this member of the garda reflects precisely the feeling
within the Garda Siochana finally the bad guys are getting their just
deserts. The officer sat in a pub just a stone's throw from the Four Courts
and gulped thirstily from a pint of Beamish. He had just seen the High
Court issue a pounds 2m order in favour of the CAB against the alleged
gangland figure Gerard Hutch, known as `The Monk' in underworld circles.

The garda's words symbolise the Force's attitude towards criminals in
particular, those underworld figures they have been targeting since late
1996, after the Sunday Independent's investigative journalist Veronica
Guerin was gunned down for daring to pursue its kingpins.

In the run-up to her death, an uncontrollable, gun-led, drugs-dominated
subculture was being operated by the untouchables in our society. They were
a law unto themselves, rarely facing arrest as they crossed European
borders on first-class flights to organise their drug deals.

`The Boxer' knew `The Warehouseman'; `The Psycho' knew `The Sicilian'; `The
Penguin' knew `The Coach' and `The Coach' knew `The Tosser'. In fact they
all knew of each other, and the gardai knew them all too.

Today, all but one of these individuals the hierarchy of Dublin's
underworld are behind bars or have suffered extreme financial loss as a
result of the new approach by politicians and the gardai.

The elite garda units that brought about these developments (and the
enlightened attitudes that accompanied them) were a direct result of the
events at the Naas Road on that fabulously sunny summer's day in July 1996,
just after 1.05pm. It's no exaggeration to say that today clouds of despair
hang heavily over the figures who constituted the Irish underworld at that
time.

Many of the figures who were so successful in their drug-dealing and
criminal activities prior to July 1996 have lost their various homes, their
fast cars and their high-powered motorbikes; they no longer take exotic
holidays or make trips abroad to major sporting events; they have abandoned
their designer clothes and their jacuzzis; they no longer have house safes
buried in their back gardens; they don't go night-clubbing into the early
hours, drinking champagne; they have lost their wives, their girlfriends
and in some cases the prostitutes they kept on retainer. As one criminal
complained last week: ``Ye can't bleedin' blink without the pigs breathin'
down your f**kin' neck.''

In the fall-out from the Guerin murder, many other criminals and alleged
fraudsters have suffered and a ``frighteningly phenomenal'' amount of
intelligence has been gathered, so much so that the CAB has a substantial
backlog of ``targets'' to which it has yet to turn its attention, say
senior garda sources.

But others have also been affected. The legislation enacted to empower the
authorities to make suspects accountable for their fortunes has gone right
to the core of society, hitting a former high-ranking city official and a
former garda.

SINCE June 1996, the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau, the
appointment of regional assistant commissioners to oversee the smooth
running and implementation of garda policy in nationwide divisions, the
establishment of the high-powered National Bureau of Criminal Investigation
and an inter-divisional liaison-led approach between these departments and
the Garda National Drugs Unit have all created a proactive police force
which innovates and motivates.

As a senior officer said: ``People think it's all a hype because the
country went anti-crime-mad after Veronica. But the situation is very, very
different today. Sure, we have thugs who are prepared to kill for money,
and messy drug deals. Sure, we still have major drug-dealers who are
getting away with importing. But significantly, we have done most of the
messy work.

``As regards the figures who were very publicly dealing in '96, we have
broken down the scenario which enabled them to operate and to become more
powerful than us.

``We don't feel a situation like that which existed before Veronica died is
likely to emerge again. It's a different ball-game now.''