THE Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has moved against one of the largest criminal gangs in the State. Documents and other materials were seized in raids on nine houses in north Dublin yesterday.
It is believed that some of the properties belong to the notorious Dublin criminal blamed for the £2.8 million Brinks Allied robbery in January 1995.
Officers from the CAB will examine the material to determine whether they can prove that the assets of the man and his associates were the proceeds of criminal activity and can be seized.
The man targeted in yesterday's action was reported to have availed of the tax amnesty in 1993.
He has been blamed for a number of large robberies, including the Securicor van robbery in Marino in 1987 and the £2.7 million robbery at an AIB cash centre in Waterford in 1992.
He was arrested last August in relation to an investigation into threats made against gardai but was released later without charge.
Yesterday's action came exactly Ia week after a damaging setback to the newly-formed CAB. Last Wednesday the High Court ruled that Ms Geraldine Gilligan, wife of convicted criminal Mr John Gilligan, was not liable for a £1.6 million tax bill served on her by the CAB.
The State is facing a claim for compensation by Mrs Gilligan for the illegal seizure of her goods.
On Friday the High Court was told that the CAB considered the ruling a "temporary respite" and would be taking further action.
However the bureau is under increasing pressure to produce a result after its initial failure in the Gilligan case.
The independent statutory agency was set up last year as part of the Government's crime package in response to the murder of the journalist Ms Veronica Guerin.
