Garda and RUC detectives were last night questioning eight people from the Border area following the largest money-laundering investigation in Ireland. Gardai recovered more than £1 million in cash in the course of the investigation. As much as £100 million in proceeds of crime may have been laundered in the past five to six years, through what, on the surface, was a small bureau de change business at the Border.
The de-facto unlicensed banking system which operated through the bureau de change is suspected of helping to launder funds from criminal enterprises, including drug-dealing, contraband tobacco and VAT fraud.
The business activities of a number of people in the Border area have been under investigation for more than three years. The substantive investigation was initiated by the Criminal Assets Bureau which worked in close co-operation with the RUC's Financial Investigation Unit. In the past year the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation assumed responsibility for leading the investigation.
Seven people were arrested by gardai under the Drug Trafficking Act, 1996, which allows detention for seven days. Four men and two women were arrested early in the day. An elderly woman was arrested later in Dundalk as she attempted to withdraw a large amount of cash from a bank account that was under investigation.
The RUC arrested a man in Crossmaglen, south Armagh, under the Police and Criminal Evidence law which allows his detention for two days.
A total of 25 premises were searched on both sides of the Border, and the RUC said a "vast quantity" of documents, money and equipment was seized. The offices of both legal and financial professionals were raided.
More than 70 gardai and Customs officials were involved in the raids in the Republic. Several RUC officers and Northern Ireland Customs officials, supported by the British army, took part in the raids in the North.
The raids are the culmination of years of work which began with the implementation on both sides of the Border of anti-laundering legislation.