cab net €5.6M after raids on Kinahan gang
Blow to mobsters as Justice Minister reveals figures
THE targeting of the Kinahan crime gang by the Criminal Assets Bureau contributed to it returning €5.6million to the State last year.
Figures released by the Justice Minister reveal this is a 30% increase on the €4.3million given back in 2017.
Charlie Flanagan said CAB officials brought 30 new “proceeds of crime” matters before the High Court.
He added: “This is the largest number of new cases ever commenced by the Bureau in a single year.”
In a written reply to TD Bernard Durkan, Minister Flanagan wrote: “The increased resources of the CAB have given rise to substantially increased levels of Bureau activity in recent years and its successful operations have become a regular feature in media reports.
“The number of asset profiles submitted to the Bureau, by the nationwide network of asset profilers, increased from 66 in 2016 to 184 in 2018, a 178% increase.
“This increase has been driven by the increased numbers of Garda, Revenue and Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection personnel who have been trained as asset profilers.
“There is now a national network of some 378 trained asset profilers as compared with 279 profilers at the end of 2017.”
Last year, the Bureau carried out 34 raids, some of them involving highlyco-ordinated, simultaneous raids on multiple sites.
In one of its largest operations, which targeted organised crime, it searched 39 locations across five counties.