CRACKDOWN ON MONEY LAUNDERING STEPPED UP BY MINISTER

THE Government crackdown on money laundering is to be widened as part of a
concerted European drive against organised crime.

Justice Minister John O'Donoghue revealed yesterday that the law which
currently obliges a range of financial institutions to report movements of
large amounts of cash is to be extended to cover a series of vulnerable
professions.

Company formation agents have been added to the list which also includes
solicitors, accountants, auctioneers and estate agents. The aim, the
minister said, was not simply to cut off that particular route for criminal
assets, but also to safeguard those professions.

He announced the new move at a Brussels summit of EU justice and home
affairs ministers where plans to step up the fight against organised crime
were formulated, particularly to counter the latest threat emerging from
eastern European countries.

Ministers paid tribute to the multi-agency approach being adopted in
Ireland and the Criminal Assets Bureau was described as a role model for
other EU countries.

The head of CAB, Chief Supt Fachtna Murphy, recently briefed EU officials
on how the gardai are working hand in hand with customs and welfare
officials, and other countries are now considering the introduction of
similar legislative measures.

Practical Measures

Mr O'Donoghue told the summit that many Irish gangsters had been driven out
of business and that CAB's success confirmed it was possible to defeat
crime bosses without undermining fundamental freedoms.

For the first time the EU is to provide funding for practical measures to
combat organised crime. The summit adopted a pact made by the EU with
Eastern European countries and Cyprus to promote police co-operation in
confronting dangers posed by the Mafia and other international gangs.

Ministers were told that international drug traffickers are estimated
worldwide to be making four times the 32bn pounds profit achieved annually
by the legitimate pharmaceutical industry, while fraud was costing the EU
32bn pounds annually.

Experts reckon that trafficking in humans rather than drugs is likely in
the future to be even more profitable with an estimated half a million
women and children being sent into prostitution annually from eastern
Europe.

EU member states agreed to step up co-operation to cope with the recent
wave of illegal immigrants.

Today, ministers will review a proposal to introduce fingerprinting for
asylum-seekers over 14 and build up a data base to make it easier to
establish whether asylum applications have been lodged in more than one
country.