IRISH, UK LINK-UP TO SMASH DRUG CARTELS

THE Irish and British Governments are to join together in a legal move
to crack down on the multi-million pound operations of major drug
traffickers and crime gang bosses.

The go-ahead for the joint action will be given by the Cabinet today
and a deal is expected to be signed in Dublin next week by Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Their aim is to streamline co-operation between the two governments to
ensure that anti-crime legislation in one jurisdiction can be enforced
in the other.

A blueprint for the crackdown was finalised at a meeting in London
last week between UK Home Secretary Jack Straw and Justice Minister
John O'Donoghue, who will brief his ministerial colleagues this
morning on the details.

CONFISCATION ORDER

The deal means that if a drug trafficker is convicted of serious
offences here but has disposed of his properties and transferred his
assets to Britain, the Garda can request the British police to move
against the baron and carry out the confiscation order.

The British authorities will then hold onto the assets, unless it is
specifically requested by the Irish.

Mr Straw is already introducing legislation which mirrors new laws
brought in here in the wake of the murder of journalist Veronica
Guerin in the summer of 1996, leading to the setting up of the hugely
successful Criminal Assets Bureau.

But the bilateral agreement, officially described as mutual assistance
in criminal matters, will have wider implications for the police on
both sides, as it will allow them to carry out searches and take
evidence that is relevant to a criminal prosecution.

`SIGNIFICANT BOOST'

One security source said last night: ``This agreement will be a
significant boost to the efforts by the authorities on both sides of
the channel to tackle organised crime as it provides legislative
back-up to the considerable levels of co-operation that already exist
between the police forces.''

Evidence of the close connections between Irish and UK-based crime
gangs was confirmed again last week when a joint operation by the
Garda national drugs unit and the Greater Manchester police smashed a
gang importing heroin into this country.

The Irish Independent revealed that a 22-year-old criminal from
Ballyfermot in west Dublin was responsible for the importation of an
estimated IEP40m worth of heroin in the first ten months of the year
before the gang's transportation network was uncovered by swoops in
Dublin and Dun Laoghaire last month.

Other leading drugs supply gangs have also been shown over the past
couple of years to have established key links with leading criminals
in British cities.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry