International Criminal Assets Bureau must be Established following Shooting

31 May 2017

by Cllr Joe Costello

Reacting to the shooting dead of a man in the North Inner City of Dublin, Labour representative Joe Costello has said an International Criminal Assets Bureau must be established and has called for the Taoiseach to establish the Implementation Structures as recommended in the Mulvey Report.

Mr Costello said:

"The shooting dead of a man from Sheridan Court, Dorset St is the 11th murder in 18 months related to the gangland feud in the North Inner City.

"Such murder and mayhem in the heart of the capital city is unprecedented and totally unacceptable. Sheridan Court is directly across the street from a primary school. Shootings are a threat to the lives of innocent men, women and children. They are a threat too to the law and order in the State.

"The present feud is fuelled by the enormous profits made by millionaire drug dealers who ply their trade in the area but who live safely abroad.

"Despite the establishment of an emergency Response Unit and the expenditure of €30 million on Garda resources neither the drug problem nor the acts of violence have diminished.

"Ironically the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, spent most of yesterday in the North Inner City on a tour of triumph, trumpeting his achievements in dealing with the problems caused by the drug dealing and the killings.

"But in reality, little has happened. The Task Force Report prepared by Kieran Mulvey to address the problems of the North Inner City was published four months ago. It has since been gathering dust in the Taoiseach’s Department. No implementation structures have been put in place, no funding has been allocated to implement the recommendations, and no plan or timescale has been agreed.

"I am calling on the Taoiseach to establish the Implementation Structures identified in the Mulvey Report before he leaves office at the end of the week.

"Secondly, failure to cut off the supply of drugs from abroad means that the killings will continue. They will be financed by the ill-gotten gains from drug dealing and the misery of so many thousands of addicts and their families.

"It is time for the Gardai and Interpol to come together and work with the member States of the European Union to establish an International Criminal Assets Bureau (ICABS) so that the assets of the international cartels and the major drug dealers who now reside abroad can be seized  in the same way as they can be seized in Ireland at present.

"Without a concerted policing and social and economic plan for the area the drug dealing gangs will continue to exploit the North Inner City and continue with their spree of murder."