THE largest and most professional criminal gang in the history of the State is on the brink of being eradicated as a result of the highly intensive, three month investigation into Veronica Guerin's murder on June 26th last.
Despite repeated denials, the leader of the gang, a Ballyfermot man in his mid 40s, and a close associate are now firmly believed to have ordered Ms Guerin's assassination.
Gardai say the criminals paid a large sum of money to two Dublin criminals, one of whom was briefly associated with the splinter republican group, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), in the late 1980s.
The criminal who ordered Ms Guerin's assassination, gardai believe, took a calculated risk in killing a high profile journalist. He obviously realised it would bring pressure to bear on his activities but perhaps believed this would only be for a limited period.
His assumption, apparently, was that once political and public attention was distracted, the Garda investigations would be wound down and he would be able to resume control of his criminal organisation.
Garda investigations have revealed that the man had built up a multi million pound business, based mainly on drug smuggling but also including lucrative sidelines from illegal tobacco smuggling to prostitution.
Two weeks ago, during a series of arrests, gardai discovered that the takings from drug dealers selling the man's drugs on the streets' of Dublin were being collected, and counted at a house on a private estate in Tallaght.
The occupant of this house, who had never previously come to the attention of serious crime detectives, had members of his family counting weekly drug takings ranging from £60,000 to £250,000.
The sums, along with previous evidence relating to a betting scam used by the criminal to "launder" this money, revealed the extraordinary scale of the criminal's business.
Some senior gardai had tried to suggest that the criminal's revenue was nothing like the eight figure sums mentioned in some newspapers. But it is now clear his drugs business could be worth up to £10 million a year.
His smuggled tobacco and cigarette trade products still widely available in Dublin is believed to be almost on a par with his drug turnover. Also, over the past two years, he is thought to have been involved in ordering a number of the "gangland" killings in Dublin.
At least 12 criminal figures have been shot dead in Dublin over the past two years, and no one has been charged with any of the killings.
The apparent lack of success in detecting "professional" criminal assassinations in Dublin may have encouraged the criminal to believe he was in a position to challenge at least one of the pillars of the State the media by killing a journalist.
The threat posed by this multimillionaire criminal was acknowledged by the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, in a speech to Garda and law officials last week in which she spoke of the "serious threat to the security of the State and to decent law abiding citizens" from organised crime.
However, the investigation into Ms Guerin's death has developed into the most intensive assault on the world of serious crime ever undertaken here.
A core team of about 30 senior detectives has been working long hours in assembling intelligence on the activities of the criminal and his associates.
The criminal could well have predicted an intensive burst of Garda activity and some collateral damage to his crime organisation. However, he could not have anticipated the intense determination with which the crime was to be pursued by Garda management.
There has been no holding back in the overtime or resources allocation for the team investigating the murder. It has become a flag ship for the Garda war against professional crime.
The IRA's murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Limerick, three weeks before Ms Guerin's murder, had already instilled a sense of anger throughout the force. The murder of the woman journalist who had done much to reveal the extent of Dublin's crime and drugs problem provided a challenge which gardai clearly felt they had to meet.
The investigation has taken the form of a dissection of Dublin's professional crime networks to uncover the income sources drugs and money distribution networks and relationships between the city's criminal families.
Much attention has focused on the path of the money made from the drug dealing. Many of the 50 or so people arrested so far have been interviewed because of their links to the financial side of the chief suspect's operations.
The criminal has resided abroad, travelling from hotels in France, the Netherlands and England, for most of the period since Ms Guerin's death and has watched from abroad as his Irish crime "empire" crumbled.
It was discovered that his weekly cash earnings were being taken out of the country by a courier, a member of a well known Dublin criminal family, who would travel by ferry to England and sometimes cross the English Channel to deliver the cash in Calais.
When this system was on the verge of collapse, as a result of Garda raids and interceptions last month, the criminal decided to return to Dublin for a week to try to set up a new system.
The visit was also to have coincided with a birthday party for his wife. However, the couple had a row and he beat her badly before leaving Dublin without having cleared up the mess which his business was falling into.
Within days of his departure, detectives lifted the lid off the money side of his business, arresting 20 members of an extended family linked to the criminal whose principal activity was the collection of drug takings and the channelling of the money to the criminal.
More recently, gardai have made a further breakthrough in identifying the murderers who were paid to follow Ms Guerin from Naas Court House to the Newlands Cross traffic lights, where they shot her dead in her car.
A gang of six or so, and not just the two gunmen on the motorcycle which pulled up alongside Ms Guerin's car, was involved in following Ms Guerin and then disposing of the motorcycle and other vehicles involved.
Gardai believe some have had, at one time or another, links with the highly violent paramilitary splinter group, the INLA.
One of Ms Guerin's suspected assassins has an extensive record for "ordinary" crime as well as a sentence for possession of explosives and firearms.
He was arrested in the late 1980s along with a known INLA figure. He has spent lengthy periods in prison and is said to be an extremely violent person.
The other principal suspect in the actual assassination is a Crumlin man, in his mid 30s, who has a long history of involvement in armed crime, drugs and dealing in stolen vehicles.