Gardaí from the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) took possession of number 17 Cowper Downs from Martin Cahill's family earlier this month.
Silverware and a number of chalices believed stolen from a Dublin church were recovered from the former home of the murdered crime boss during the clean up operation. However Gardaí believe that the stolen items, discovered under a pigeon loft, were not valuable.
The Cab was established under the Criminal Assets Bureau Act in 1996. Its role is to freeze or confiscate, through court proceedings, assets and other wealth, including real estate, vehicles, cash and other property, which derive, or are suspected to derive from criminal activity including drug trafficking, corruption and smuggling.
The bureau's policy is to dispose of properties by public auction rather than manage them, according to Cab Chief Supt Felix McKenna. Following an application by the Cab, the High Court may make an order prohibiting the dealing with or disposal of property, which can be shown, on the civil standard of proof, to be the proceeds of crime.
The specified property can then be sold and the proceeds are frozen for a period of seven years.
Since the Cab was established nine years ago it has seized and disposed of over 20 properties including houses, pubs, a farm, brothels and a block of apartments in Smithfield, which alone earned the bureau some €4 million in 2001. Earlier this year the Cab began legal proceedings seeking the transfer of properties owned by the family of convicted drug dealer John Gilligan, including an eqestrian Centre outside Enfield, Co Kildare, to the State.
