The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) is selling properties seized from criminals, mostly drug dealers, at a faster rate than any time since its inception almost 30 years ago.
With 21 new proceeds of crime cases commenced, and the illicit drugs trade booming, sources said the number of properties – houses, apartments and commercial real estate – being seized and sold looks set to further increase.
The details of Cab’s performance during 2024 were due to be outlined on Tuesday by Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan at the weekly Cabinet meeting before an annual report is published in coming days.
The Irish Times understands Cab sold 20 seized properties last year, fetching a combined €5 million, compared to 12 sales the previous year, which was a new record at the time.
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Of the 20 properties sold, seven sales were in Dublin, two were in Kildare and one was in Lazarote. There was also one property sale each in Wexford, Monaghan, Tipperary, Limerick, Carlow, Longford, Donegal, Clare, Kerry and Cavan.
The property in Lanzarote, believed to be the first foreign real estate sold by the bureau, was an apartment owned by Limerick woman Sandra Hehir (57). She was jailed for money laundering last year after €124,000 in cash was found in the attic of her home five years ago. She is the sister of Limerick drugs gang leader Christy Keane.
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The bureau last year also achieved its biggest ever sale price for a seized property as a large house in South Dublin linked to Kinahan cartel leader, Daniel Kinahan, and jailed businessman, Jim Mansfield jnr, fetched €931,000.
The four-bedroom, three-bathroom, two reception-room gated property at No 10 Coldwater Lakes in Saggart, Co Dublin, attracted 168 bids in an online auction.
Cab told the High Court businessman Mansfield Jnr gave the property, plus various cash payments, to Kinahan and his drug dealing associate in Britain, Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh. This followed failure by Mansfield to make property investments worth about €4.5 million, cash the gang gave him in two suitcases on the day after Good Friday in 2009.
The bureau was created in 1996, after the gun murder of journalist Veronica Guerin by members of the John Gilligan drugs gang. It was established to ensure the Garda could tackle the financial strength of criminals. The Proceeds of Crime Act provides for the seizing of cash and other assets from criminals, even when they have not been convicted of the crimes that generated their wealth.
In another first for Cab last year, the bureau’s legal officer appointed a receiver to commercial properties owned by criminals and which were still in the process of being seized. This ensured the criminals were denied the rental income from those properties before their full and final seizure was completed, which had never been done before.
Sources said while that new method of targeting organised crime arose due to more aggressive tactics by the bureau, it also reflected the fact some criminals were seeking to invest in commercial properties.
They were doing so a bid to launder their money, generate an apparently legitimate income stream and plan for their futures.
Last year the bureau held its second online auction, which generated significant interest at home and abroad and raised €216,000. The items sold included jewellery and designer goods, such as clothing, all seized from criminals.
Overall, Cab carried out 46 search operations last year, with each usually involved the simultaneous and co-ordinated searches of multiple locations. A total of 227 individual searches were carried out in 2024.
