IRISH GANGS AIDED BY BELGIAN AND DUTCH DRUG LINKS

Organised crime gangs in Ireland have established lucrative links
with Irish drug traffickers in Belgium and the Netherlands, according
to a new European policing report.

Gardai believe that Irish criminals who fled to the Netherlands,
Belgium and Spain after the establishment of the Criminal Assets
Bureau (CAB) in 1996 continue to be heavily involved in organising
drugs shipments through Irish ports for Ireland and other
destinations.

The report by Europol, the European police network, notes that
criminal activity in the north-eastern Atlantic hub - in which Irish
and British gangs are major players - is boosted by drug trafficking
across a large sea area and through the region's many ports and airports.

"It is clear that the criminal dimension of the region pertains
mainly to drug trafficking and, to a somewhat lesser extent, illegal
immigration and associated criminal activities such as money
laundering, document forgery, bribery and corruption," said the report.

"In recent years, economic crime and VAT carousel fraud have clearly
gained importance in the region."

Irish and British gangs benefit from what Europol describes as a
"major bridge for Atlantic flows [of narcotics] . . . and from being
in a central position to the EU mainland".

Cocaine, heroin and cannabis are trafficked into and redirected from
Ireland and Britain to continental markets, while synthetic drugs are
also produced and trafficked from the region to the European mainland.

The illegal drugs market here, based on extrapolated annual figures
for drugs seizures, is now worth more than =801 billion.

The European Union Organised Crime Threat Assessment for 2007 was
compiled from submissions by police forces from across the EU area -
including the gardai - and from peripheral states.