CRIME LORDS HIT FOR MILLIONS AS CAB SCORE GROWS

The State's most lethal anti crime weapon has hit its top underworld targets
for more than IEP27m in asset seizures and tax demands in less than three years.

The hugely successful strike rate of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB)
emerged last night after it scored two major victories in the courts against
the country's number one armed robber and a leading drug trafficking family.

The latest victims of the CAB's relentless campaign against the crime barons
were millionaire gang boss Gerry "The Monk" Hutch and members of the
notorious Felloni family.

The CAB was granted a High Court judgment against Dubliner Hutch for
IEP2,031,551, including an assessment of IEP782,980 for income tax for nine
years.

Hutch was named as the prime suspect for masterminding a IEP1.7m robbery
from a security van at Marino, Dublin, in 1987, and the armed robbery of
IEP3.8m from the Brinks-Allied depot at Clonshaugh, Co Dublin, in January 1996.

The judge refused a stay on the order in the event of an appeal and the head
of the CAB, Det Chief Supt Fachtna Murphy, will meet with his legal officer
Barry Galvin and other senior members of his staff early next week to
determine how the money should be collected. In a separate case, the High
Court ordered that assets belonged to heroin dealer Tony Felloni and his son
Luigi, should be handed over to a CAB receiver and deposited in one bank
account, pending a further court order.

Chief Supt Murphy said last night that the decisions represented significant
developments for his bureau in its implementation of the special legislation
brought in as part of a Government crime crackdown in the wake of the
murders of journalist Veronica Guerin and detective garda Jerry McCabe in
the summer of 1996.

He declined to comment on how the court decision would be used against Hutch
but it is understood that a number of options remain open to the CAB,
including the use of a sheriff's certificate, the weapon deployed in a
previous high profile case and bankruptcy procedures.

Meanwhile, it was learned last night that the CAB has now served tax demands
on suspects for at least IEP20m while orders for the seizure of assets under
the Proceeds of Crime Act total more than IEP7m.

The CAB has also secured court approval for a further IEP700,000 in social
welfare savings by moving against suspects illegally claiming dole benefits.

Other top underworld figures confronted by the CAB include the self
confessed Guerin murder gang boss, John Gilligan and his alleged associates,
Gene Holland, Brian Meehan and John Traynor.

George "The Penguin" Mitchell is on a list of alleged drug traffickers hit
by the CAB while other high profile figures who have been targetted for tax
include bankrupt Matthew Kelly and former Dublin assistant city and county
manager George Redmond.