The annual report from the Criminal Assets Bureau makes encouraging reading. Last year, between interim orders, taxes and final restraint orders, it seized more than €44 million. This represents a sharp increase on the previous year and means that since its inception in 1996 the bureau has obtained orders worth €69 million while taxes and interest demanded were in excess of €71 million.
The bureau employs some 60 personnel and costs about €3 million a year to run; it must be, by far, the most profitable public sector activity.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, commented that the report "underlines the key role of the bureau in the fight against crime, particularly in the fight against drug-trafficking and organised crime" and that is as one would expect. The bureau was set up in the aftermath of the murder of Veronica Guerin, and much of its first years of existence was spent in court defending its legal right to exist. Once its rights were confirmed by the courts, it proceeded with great success to seize the illegally-obtained assets of criminals. And as well as its exceptional financial results the bureau has laid to rest the accepted belief that criminals can defy the law and enjoy their wealth publicly and with impunity.
It is, however, worth noting that €34 million of the €44 million which was seized last year came from interim orders which may or may not be converted into final restraint orders when the High Court sits in judgment. In addition, most of the €34 million is accounted for by just two actions, one which involved a VAT fraud and which manifested an order for €22 million. Another order was for €6.6 million and concerned a US national who hid money in Irish banks. Take out these items and it means that drug-dealers and other major criminals were hit for just €5.5 million.
The value of drugs seized in the first half of this year alone amounted to €67 million. For the entire of last year the figure was €47 million. And the street price for drugs suggests that supplies continue to reach numerous customers in large quantities. This level of drug importation necessitates the accumulation, concealment and transit of enormous amounts of money. It was a founding principle of the CAB that it would zero in on the ill-gotten gains of drug-dealers. The figures would suggest that drug-dealers are not suffering as much as they should. There is talk of the bureau being given extra powers to tackle bribery and corruption and no doubt this is appropriate. But the bureau, first and foremost, must hit hard the drug barons who control massive resources and deal out so much misery and are behind so much crime on the streets of Ireland today.