BUREAU GIVES A CUTTING EDGE TO ASSAULT ON CRIME

THE effectiveness of the Criminal Assets Bureau as the State's most
successful crime-buster has been powerfully established in the
relatively short time since it was set up in the wake of the Veronica
Guerin murder.

Following its initial investigations, most of Dublin's major criminal
figures have been hounded out of the jurisdiction. Nor have they found
a safe haven abroad as some were hunted down through the close
co-operation of an international police network.

Among the most telling factors to emerge from the work of the CAB was
the realisation that Ireland's drug barons were importing their deadly
products through the port of Amsterdam. An insight into the extent of
their evil trade is seen in today's investigation by The Examiner
Security Correspondent charting the work of the CAB and showing how
shadowy gangland figures operate freely at the heart of our society.
The grim picture would be more in keeping with the operations of the
Mafia.

In recent years vast amounts of cannabis and cocaine have been seized
off the Irish coast by the National Drugs Team. But this enormous
haul, estimated to be worth a staggering IEP120m, is only the tip of
an iceberg. At least as much again continues to end up on the streets
of our towns and cities.

Thousands of parents whose children are the target of unscrupulous
criminals will welcome the CAB's move to launch tax investigations
into the shadowy figures suspected of controlling much of the drugs
trade in the Munster region. These are the ruthless men who rarely
have direct contact with the drugs themselves. Often unemployed, they
live in luxurious houses in fashionable areas, dealing in death at one
remove. Grossing as much as IEP230,000 a month, they can clear profits
of IEP170,000, figures which most people could not save in a lifetime.

Hitting the hidden assets of criminals has proved to be a powerful
weapon. In the latest operation, for instance, a tax bill for
IEP640,000 has been served on a multi-millionaire gangland leader.
This follows a IEP2B75m demand on another Munster drugs baron in
recent times. In another significant development reported in these
columns today one of Ireland's biggest drug dealers was finally convicted.

Society owes a huge debt of gratitude to the tireless work of unseen
men and women behind the Criminal Assets Bureau. Their efforts to
deprive criminals of the proceeds of crime have given a vital cutting
edge to the assault on organised crime.