The Criminal Assets Bureau sold 20 properties which were found to be the proceeds of crime last year, the highest number sold in any one year.
One of the properties, the former Dublin home of the leader of the Kinahan Organised Group, Daniel Kinahan, sold for over €930,000.
The four-bedroom, three-bathroom detached house on a corner site in a private gated complex at Coldwater Lakes in Saggart sold for €380,000 more than the asking price.
It is the most CAB has received for any property it has ever sold.
The bureau also returned over €17m to the Exchequer.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan is expected to bring the bureau’s annual report to the Cabinet and publish it later.
CAB seized more homes deemed to be the proceeds of crime last year than in any other year since its establishment in 1996 following the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin.
The detached house on a corner site in Saggart sold for €380,000 more than the asking price
CAB also targeted the assets in Garristown in north Co Dublin of Ross Browning, who CAB says is “a close and trusted lieutenant” of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group and its “principal representative” in Ireland.
It sold a renovated cottage, a yard, a manure store, a large shed, stables and a second house, together with a paddocks and an exercise arena for €550,000.
Around €1.3m worth of work had already been carried out on the property.
CAB seized four houses in Dublin and Wexford from Dublin drug dealers David and Christopher Waldron, including Darview Heights, David Waldron’s luxury country home outside Gorey, on which he spent €1.7m in renovations. It was sold for €522,000.
CAB also sold houses and land in Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Kildare, Longford, Carlow, Kerry, Tipperary, Clare and in Limerick, as well as an apartment in Puerto del Carmen in Lanzarote for €155,000.
Twenty properties were sold last year for a total of over €4.9m.
Over €17m was also returned to the Exchequer, comprising €3.1m under proceeds of crime legislation, €500,000 of social welfare and €13.3m tax on ill-gotten gains.
One unnamed corporate entity paid over €5.5m in tax.
CAB officers conducted 227 individual searches in 13 counties last year and seized cash, luxury cars and high-value goods including designer clothes and jewellery.
Two auctions were held last year, with one making over €500,000.
Jim O’Callaghan is expected to bring the bureau’s annual report to the Cabinet (Pic: RollingNews.ie)
Sixteen designer watches sold for €117,760, including a Rolex Daytona watch that sold for €26,000 and a Rolex Submariner Watch that sold for €11,250. Forty-three designer bags realised a total of €74,080, including a Hermés Birkin 30 Handbag sold for €18,250.
Seven designer wallets and purses were sold for €6,380, seven items of designer clothing, including three designer belts, were sold for €1,120 and a fur chinchilla dyed coat also sold for €1,120.
Ten assorted pieces of jewellery sold for €5,090, while 26 pairs of designer shoes realised €5,040.
CAB also seized and sold 19 miscellaneous items, which included a Swarovski crystal bottle stopper, designer face creams, designer perfume, designer key chains and charms, designer sunglasses and old bank notes that are out of circulation.
CAB seized a total of over €12m worth of assets last year.
Head of CAB, Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins, points out in the report that the success of much of its work is “non-measurable” in that it disrupts criminal networks, inhibits money laundering and positively engages with the wider community by taking criminals’ assets and reducing their influence and power bases.
Minister O’Callaghan introduced new legislation which will reduce from seven to two years the time within which the CAB can secure a final order to dispose of assets and provide enhanced restraint powers for financial accounts and other assets.