As part of a major crackdown, the Criminal Assets Bureau has taken almost half a million euro from suspected criminal figures fraudulently claiming social welfare.

BRITISH online shoppers are set to spend a total of £537 million (€632m) today in what is predicted to be the busiest internet shopping day of the year.

A MAN suspected of carrying out a triple shooting was yesterday urged by police to give himself up as a huge manhunt entered its third day.

A Strabane man accused of INLA membership was shot in the back by the INLA and is confined to a wheelchair as a result, the Special Criminal Court in Dublin heard today.

THE former chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) was described as the elephant in the room during the trial of Ted Cunningham.

Drug traffickers and armed robbers are buying houses with bogus documents in order to conceal the proceeds of crime, it was claimed today.

A DETECTIVE searching the home of a man accused of money laundering believed the accused was part of an IRA gang that included another man caught at a railway station with a large amount of euro cash in a Daz washing powder box.

Small-time criminals who parade their ill-gotten gains around communities are now being targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), it was claimed today.

ON February 22, 2007, a Cork man met two arms dealers in a London warehouse — everyone at the meeting stripping naked to show that they were not wearing wires or any electronic surveillance devices.

A senior garda told the Special Criminal Court today that he believed the man accused of IRA membership was in charge of the IRA in the Dublin area.

A Dublin man walked free from the Special Criminal Court today after being found not guilty of IRA membership.

The head of the garda fraud squad today put up a robust defence of his career and professionalism rejecting any part in the bugging of garda stations.

The head of the Garda Special Branch told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today that he believed two Dublin men were members of the IRA.

Stabbed British policeman Michael Swindells sacrificed his life to save passers-by from a maniac knifeman, his Chief Constable said today.

Two republicans suspected of the sectarian murder of a taxi driver in north Belfast were targeted in punishment shootings shortly after the killing, an inquest heard today.

A MASSIVE seizure of €1.2m ecstasy tablets over the weekend — thought to be the biggest on record — has underlined a major increase in drug hauls so far this year.

THE Department of Justice is considering the compulsory fingerprinting of all non-EU nationals living here as part of a crackdown on a massive increase in identity fraud.

A senior dissident republican was today jailed for five years by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin after he was convicted of membership of an illegal organisation.