Police in the North today froze more than €12 million worth of property belonging to the brothers of an alleged fuel smuggler in Northern Ireland.
The Assets Recovery Agency won a High Court bid to seize control of 36 houses on both sides of the Border.
In its biggest case ever, the authority applied for an extension to the Interim Receiving Order against Damien McGleenan after investigating his brothers Joseph and Francis.
Agency chiefs claimed the pair, from Keady, Co Armagh, had assisted him in laundering the proceeds of crime.
They were alerted to the case by HM Revenue and Customs following a probe into suspected fuel smuggling and evasion of excise duty and VAT by racketeers operating along the south Armagh border.
As well as houses and sites in Newry, Belfast, Markethill, Armagh, Keady, Newtownhamilton, Milford, Dundalk, Co Monaghan, Co Cavan and Dublin, the ARA has frozen plots of land and 11 bank accounts.
The overall value has been estimated at stg£8.2 million and it comes on top of the original £400,000 in the interim receiving order granted against Damien McGleenan in January 2006.
The agency's deputy director Alan McQuillan said: "This is one of the most valuable portfolios of assets frozen to date in Northern Ireland.
"In getting this order today, we had to be able to show to the High Court that we had a good arguable case that these assets were also the proceeds of crime."
The court was also told that Francis McGleenan owns a property portfolio worth more than stg£650,000, including houses in Keady and Belfast.
Although the brothers strongly contested the action, ARA representatives were granted permission to widen the order.
They had already moved on a pub, homes on both sides of the border and a range of bank accounts belonging to Damien McGleenan, claiming his assets were derived from fuel smuggling and tax evasion.
The total value of the order now stands at £8.6m.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed earlier that a murdered drug dealer's Belfast home has been auctioned off for 25 per cent over the list price.
The ARA sold Paul Daly's house at Laurelgrove Dale for £240,000 — and immediately pledged to use the money for its war on crime.
The agency had been granted a High Court recovery order to take 90 per cent of the proceeds. They were also given permission to take complete control of his accidental death insurance policy.
His partner and beneficiary of his will, Jacqueline Conroy, had consented to the recovery order. She will receive 10 per cent of the sale price.
Daly (38) was gunned down in May 2001 as he sat in a car with his partner in Belfast city centre. He had received death threats from paramilitaries on both sides of the sectarian divide, but detectives believe republicans most likely carried out the assassination.
PA